Jane Byers writes about human resilience in the context of raising children, lesbian and gay issues, and health and safety in the workplace. Her poems, essays and short fiction have been published in a variety of books and literary magazines in Canada, the US, and the UK. Her first book of poetry, Steeling Effects, was released in 2014. She lives with her wife and two children in Nelson, British Columbia.

Acquired Community

Jane Byers’ Acquired Community is both a collection of narrative poems about seminal moments in North American lesbian and gay history, mostly post-World War II, and a series of first person poems that act as a touchstone to compare the narrator’s coming out experience within the larger context of the gay liberation movement. In this second book by Byers, her poems go beyond the historical perspective of LGBT rights to examine and celebrate community resilience.