One of my very rare poems was included in a wonderful poetry anthology from Grayson Books: FORGOTTEN WOMEN. The book was just named the year's best poetry anthology in an end-of-the-year roundup at the Washington Independent Review of Books. Here's what they said: Forgotten Women: A Tribute in Poetry, edited by Ginny Lowe Connors, introduction by Marilyn Kallet. Grayson Books. 191 pages. It’s not so much that the poems are about women unknown or unsung – the book’s beauty is because there’re so many women we simply forget to honor – and these poems do that. There are also women figures not famous, maybe family members, in poems by such notables as Rita Dove and Ted Kooser. This book is a treasure chest of great poems; it just happens to be about women known and unknown. There’s more talent in this book than stars in a jar, multiple voices representing the best of human values – each poem chosen is a well-made thing about a notable female. There’s nothing we can’t do with words, like bringing to life Susan Erickson’s POW Nurses of Bataan or Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s women in the factory ‘where my mother worked;’ or Vivian Shipley’s Radium Girls. The book is divided into sections: Hard Work; Unknown to the World, the World to Someone; In the Shadows of Their Men; Making Herstory; Happy Is How I’ll Look. I learned a lot about these women I should have known. And we love the book’s epigraph, said by Ann Richards: “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” I loved the premise of the collection, which explores the lives of exemplary writers, artists, musicians, scientists, workers, housewives who have been forgotten. (My poem centered on the women behind the well-known New England Transcendentalists.) There are so many great poets in the anthology! I'm glad to see it get some recognition. Comments are closed.
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