Without Asking

Without Asking marks Jane Ransom’s debut as a book author, initially placing her within the poetic tradition of narrative Confessionalism. But one can already sense here the ambivalence that would lead both to a break from narrative—in her second poetry book, Scene of the
Crime—and her subsequent return to narrative in Bye-Bye, her first novel. This is a writer whose epistemological inquiry continuously turns both inward and outward, from linear to non-linear and back again, in an unrelenting quest for Truth.

Jane Ransom is the author of two poetry volumes, one novel, and the nonfiction book Self-Intelligence: The New Science-Based Approach for Realizing Your True Potential. Her first poetry book, Without Asking, won the Nicholas Roerich poetry prize. Her novel, Bye-Bye, won the Mamdouha S. Bobst Award. She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies in the United States, and at Fundación Valparaíso in Spain. She’s the recipient of poetry fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A former international news editor and writing professor, Jane Ransom has taught at Rutgers University and New York University, and as the Distinguished Poet in Residence at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, CA. She now serves as a speaker and trainer on brain plasticity and the science of personal transformation. Using her Self-Intelligence® model, she coaches individuals for a growth mindset and helps organizations improve leadership and employee engagement. A native Midwesterner, she has lived in New York, Boston, Madrid, Paris, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and San Francisco, before moving to Durham, North Carolina.