If the world's humanity had the same love, respect and connection to the animal kingdom as author Jenny Bates, 2020 would be a much different year. In Slip, Bates smiles bravely at the night because she has written a book that speaks of ignorance, happiness and exhaustion beneath a delicate light shining on empty ruins. It is an exercise in finding what Camu reveals in his own writing, (to speak) "...with a lipless mouth...learn one last time what I know." If one were to say this book is about love, sorrow, letting go, even letting go of change, the critique would be incomplete. Instead, it is about a little deaf, black pup who taught Bates, "I am Nothing. (and) By becoming this, his true eyes became a solid ground to walk." We would say to each other "There is Nothing like you, there was Nothing like you, and there shall be Nothing like you." When I slipped, he let me fall then took that solid ground with him to place under another's steps. Yet he left me able to see in that dark. ' Slip joins Bates 2019 publication, Visitations (Hermit Feathers Press) as a work of profound observation of two souls joined, though parted, will never truly slip eternal bonds.

Jenny Bates, born and raised in Michigan, resides as poet in the foothills of North Carolina. She is a member of Winston-Salem Writers, NC Poetry Society and the NC Writers Network. She has three published books, Opening Doors: an equilog of poetry about Donkeys (Lulu Publishing, Raleigh, NC), Coyote with Coffee (Catbird on the Yadkin Press, Tobaccoville, NC). Both books reside in the collections of Libraries and Universities (Vanderbilt and the University of Vermont) in the United States and England, and Visitations (Hermit Feathers Press, Clemmons, NC). North Carolina School of the Arts displays her poem, A Bluebird Heart for Aaron Shearer as a tribute to the Classic Guitar master. Her work has also been published in Flying South, Winston-Salem Writers premier literary work. She is a consecutive contributing poet in the Winston-Salem Writers series Poetry in Plain Sight and in 2017 she was a top 10 Finalist in the Press 53 Single Poem Contest. On the 100th Anniversary of WWI, she was asked to write poetry launching a website dedicated to the history and contributions of Donkeys and Mules during WWI. These poems now reside in the archives of the Animals in War memorial in London. Her poetry is a reflection of her philosophy of life: All humans have learned about being human by what we have gained from observing our fellow animals. With a much longer history than humans, animals have learned perhaps not to accept, but to respect their differences. Her work has been published in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Old Mountain Press, and Hermit Feathers Review. Jenny's poetry has appeared in laJoie 2017- 2019, a quarterly publication of Animals' Peace Garden, dedicated to promoting appreciation for all beings. In 2019 her poem "Fame Looks Both Ways" was included in the Walt Whitman Bicentennial Celebration for publication in Poets to Come. Her online publications include As It Ought To Be Magazine, Poetry That Sustains Us, Word Doodles Literary Magazine, Poetica Publishing's Mizmor Anthology 2020. Jenny currently volunteers as animal whisperer and helping hand at Plum Granny Farm, an organic local farm in Stokes County, North Carolina.