Book Project Editors Introduction

Jennifer Zumot was born in Passaic County General Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey on July 12, 1985. She is the first born daughter and child to her Middle Eastern, Catholic parents. She was the only child for about two and half years before her sister was born early in 1988. From that point on, she and her sister were treated as twins. For a number of years, they were dressed in the same clothes. Her parents moved from Garfield, in northern New Jersey, to Pleasantville, in southern New Jersey, later that same year as her sister’s birth.

Zumot was enrolled in the public preschool in Pleasantville after she turned four years old. However, from kindergarten until the sixth grade, her parents put her into a private Catholic school in the same town. During her Catholic school education, her parents had another child. Only this time there was big age gap between this child and their two daughters. In 1994, about seven years after their last child, her parents had a son. This meant there is an age difference of almost ten years between her and her brother!

After living in their home in Pleasantville for several years, Zumot’s parents decided to move. Her parents bought a brand new home in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. After completing the sixth grade at the Catholic school in Pleasantville, she was enrolled in the public school of Egg Harbor Township (EHT). She completed middle school and high school in EHT. She graduated from high school in June 2003.

Zumot continued her education by going to Atlantic Cape Community College, where she studied for two years and received her Associates Degree in General Studies. Then she transferred to The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, where she is currently working on her Bachelor’s of the Arts in Literature. She will graduate in May 2007 with this degree. She plans to continue her education by going to graduate school to receive a Masters in the Arts in Teaching and teacher certification.

This is a compilation of poems and poets that Zumot came across during her college education. The classes she has taken influenced this collection of poetry. These poems and poets have different subjects; some are humorous while others are more serious. Take for example the feminist/ singer-songwriter, Ani Difranco, whose poetry deals with current issues in society today. Her poems have serious points, in which the reader is left to wonder, and funny points, that leave the reader in laughter.

Then there is the poet Tim Seibles, whose writing style is more modern and expresses the views of the twenty-first century. This kind of poetry incorporates the ghetto slang language used by those of the younger generation. His poetry gives the reader a different point of view of looking at certain situations. There are more poems and poets that are neither the same or different as the ones before them. Zumot hopes that as the reader of this book, you will find it useful and enjoyable. You just never know when you will come across a good piece of poetry.