Jane Flanders (1940-2001) was an American poet. She was the author of three books of poetry and three posthumous volumes. Flanders won the Discovery/The Nation Award, the Juniper Prize, and the Pushcart Prize three times, among many other awards.
Jane Ann Hess (Flanders) was born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. She lived in Waynesboro until leaving for Bryn Mawr College in 1958. Her Pennsylvania roots were very deep and inform much of her work. Her parents remained in the house where she grew up until after her death, and her ancestors had lived in Pennsylvania for many generations.
After two years teaching English at the Punahou School in Hawaii (from 1962 through 1964, well before Barack Obama was in attendance), she obtained an M.A. in English (history of the English language) at Columbia University. Though she had considerable financial and other support, she declined to complete her work toward a Ph.D., regarding herself more as an artist than a scholar. After her 1966 marriage to Steven Flanders, she had three children, who were brought-up in Washington, D.C. and Pelham, NY. At various times she taught at Clark University, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Pittsburgh, among other institutions. As many of her poems evidence, she was strongly interested in many of the arts. She was an excellent pianist and majored in music in college. A memorial plaque at the "Jane Flanders Nook" on the Bryn Mawr campus describes her as "Poet, Musician, Gardener."
Her work appeared in The Atlantic, Chelsea, Commonwealth, The Massachusetts Review, The Nation, New England Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Poetry, and other periodicals. Her work is widely admired by poets and other literary figures. Joyce Carol Oates said of her first published volume that, "Many of her poems have the bite and sting of Ann Sexton's poetry, but they are admirably restrained as well, tracing the necessary journey one makes in "coming back" to one's deepest self after a busy, extroverted life
