About the Author

The author is a poet, arts educator and editor. She won an American Book Award for editing 'First Fish First People: Salmon Tales of the North Pacific Rim.' Wisdom of the Body is her third collection of poetry. (Black Heron published her second collection-'Myrrh'.) She will be Distinguished Northwest Writer at Seattle University in Seattle in 2007.

Reviews

" All Fire All Water by Judith Roche is both a hymn to all that is broken in the world and a song of celebration for the earth's renewal and rebirth. Full of beautifully imagistic poems, this book expresses the poet's sorrow and joy at all we have lost, all we have failed to protect and cherish. Roche also deals with the sorrow of failed relationships and the joy of the children created from them. In the midst of pain, she finds irony and humor, and carries us with her on this passionate journey." Maria Mazziotti Gillan , winner of the George Garrett Award, the Writers for Writers Award, and the American Book Award

"Judith Roche has spent years patently developing an impressive body of poetry. In All Fire All Water, she demonstrates her considerable skills in presenting mature and nuanced passions, humor and hard-earned insights. There is much to be learned from these poems and much to be praised." Sam Hamill

"I have been a fan and reader of Judith Roche's poetry for several decades. This book is an absolutely brilliant collection. Here the poet brings together her life experience with a genuine love and understanding of nature and ecology. There are nature poems here that would grab John Muir's, Rachel Carson's, and Edward Abbey's attention. There are, also insightful, satirical poems, as in "The Husbands Sweet," that are thought provoking and sophisticated in their bittersweet, sad humor. These poems are both significant and beautiful. If poetry collections were to be compared to popular music, then this is Judith Roche's Sgt. Pepper." M.L. Liebler , Detroit Poet and Editor of Working Words (Coffee House Press)

"Black Heron Press, based in Mill Creek (Washington), has been publishing books of consistently provocative integrity for a couple of decades now. In 1994, the press began sharing the work of Seattle poet Judith Roche. The first collection was Myrrh/My Life as a Screamer. Then in 2007, her volume Wisdom of the Body won an American Book Award. Now there's a brand new collection, All Fire All Water . These poems are gathered into four sections. The first groupingmy favoritefocuses on environmental observations and the impact that human activities have on natural processes. From climate change to the great Pacific Garbage Patch to the opening of a wastewater treatment plant, Roche works her magic in astute observation and keen phrasing. She identifies sources of despair and causes for hope, and turns nuggets of real life into apt poetic phrases. At times she indulges in the playfulness of formfrom the elegant "Bee Villanelle" on one page, to the lurching rhymes of a fiend-filled poem called "Autumn Twilight" on the next. The book's middle sections focus on the violence that happens among us, and on the poet's past loves. In the final section, "We Are Stardust," Roche's poems probe the transience and continuity of life. Some of these poems are lamentation. Others are songs of praise or possibility." Barbara McMichael , The Bellingham Herald, April 30, 2015

"[In] All Fire All Water by Judith Roche, the Seattle-area poet publishes her fourth collection. It touches on a wide swath of environments, emotions and interplays from our relationship with nature, the horrors of suffering, the ups and downs of personal connections and the mysteries of finding identity." The Seattle Times , April 28, 2015