Born in Chicago in the 1930s, and drawn to Northern California in the 1960s, Nancy Blanchard has been writing her whole life. Nevertheless, Looking for the Bony Essence is the first collection of her poetry to be widely available. Almost all of these poems—written from the 1960s through the 1990s—previously existed only in handwritten form, Blanchard having rejected first the typewriter, then the computer. Feeling the importance of creating every letter by hand. This book, then, is a kind of translation, converting the quirky idiosyncrasies of her handwriting and calligraphy, into the common standards of a printed book. Something is lost and something is gained. But the poems shine through.