In the emotionally charged and moving poems of her first book, Window on the River, Ann Anderson Stranahan depicts with unusual honesty the trials and joys of a daughter, a mother, a wife, and a fighter for human rights. The generosity of spirit, wit, and empathetic compassion of these poems will enrich the lives of all who read them. Previewers of the book have been delighted by the discovery of a major poet whose humanitarian endeavors have previously taken precedence over publication. Carol J. Pierman has noted that “To read these poems is to find ‘sense in the incomprehensible,’ delight in the unexpected.” Molly Newman writes that Stranahan “is a natural storyteller and a keen, often witty witness to the human condition. In her astonishing first poetry collection, Window on the River, she describes life so remarkably well lived that the reader longs to be a part of it. The constant current that flows through the river of the title is her own family, and her voice is wise and fluent in the imagery of intimacy… In later sections of the book, she scrupulously describes lost and untethered characters with whom she struggles, with mixed but fascinating results, to form make-shift families and transfer her own good luck to these unlucky souls. These poems alternately give you hope and break your heart.” And this from Barbara Cawthorne Crafton: “Ann Stranahan writes poems that manage to be at once both spare and full of indelible images.”
Stranahan was born in Richmond, Virginia. She attended St. Catherine’s School and graduated from St. Timothy’s School and from Smith College, with a BA in Art History. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. She has committed much of her life to voluntary work with cultural and educational institutions in northwest Ohio, and with public broadcasting at both the local and national level. Her strong attraction to color and to visual art drew her to the handwork of the Hmong women documented in this book, and recently into movie-making. Ann and her husband, Stephen, live in Perrysburg, Ohio, on a bank of the Maumee River. They have four children and eight grandchildren. In 1980 they built The Home Ranch, a guest ranch and cross-country ski lodge in Clark, Colorado, where for many years they have worked with their neighbors to preserve the agricultural tradition and landscapes of the lyrical Elk River Valley.
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