Post by shayepoet on Jul 25, 2008 6:28:15 GMT 2
A is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth, Poems
Penelope Scambly Schott
2008 Oregon Book Award in Poetry
This engrossing collection of poems explores the life of Anne Hutchinson, the dissident Puritan thinker and speaker who played a pivotal role in the emergence of American religious freedom. The multiplicity of voices and Schott's varied techniques create a nuanced, unforgettable portrait of its subject.
Sample poem:
Freedom in the New World
This morning a lynx
slinks past our door, and a bear
in the root cellar sleeps, musk
skunk-thick, masking
the scent of rotting apples. I know
that animals do not have souls,
not even this bear with her cubs;
still I prop the root cellar door
open
in order not to trap her.
Later among berry bushes,
she harvests with desterous tongue;
how mobile her shining black lips.
Praise for A Is for Anne:
"Meticulously researched, marvelously rendered, A is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth is biography written with the flame of poetry. Anne Hutchinson grapples with injustice and confining religious conformity. This wonderful books is as much a parable for our own frightened and frightening times as a depiction of a period blurred by the mists of history."
--Robert Cooperman
"In this imagined recreation of the inner life of the colonial heretic Anne Hutchinson, Penelope Scambly Schott helps resuscitate one of the most important women in the history of civil rights and religion in America."
--Eve LaPlante, author of American Jezebel, the Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
*****
*****
Reviews for A Is for Anne:
"If you are interested in the conflicts that gave shape to this country we call America, read this book. If you like such history in varied and pleasing poetic forms, greater reason to read this book. If you thirst for stories that show human endurance in trials of great extremity, this book will entice you and ultimately satisfy you."
Rattle, Reviewed by Claire Keyes
"...Anne concentrates on bringing a single, emblematic character to life, telling a unified story that resonates for contemporary Americans..."
Women's Review of Books, Volume 25, Issue 2, March/April 2008
"Poems Including History--And More"
Reviewed by Wendy Vardaman
"A is for Anne charts the emotional landscape of a landmark figure in American history, a woman who was a beacon in the struggle for civil rights and religious freedom."
Small Press Review, Volume 39, Issues 11-12, November/December 2007
"A is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth"
Reviewed by Barbara Crooker
About the author:
Penelope Scambly Schott has published one novel, four chapbooks, and six full-length poetry books. The most recent include Baiting the Void, 2005 (winner of the Orphic Prize, Dream Horse Press) and The Pest Maiden: A Story of Lobotomy, 2004 (Turning Point Press). A is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth, 2007 (Turning Point Press), is a narrative poem about Anne Hutchinson who was expelled from Boston by the Puritans in 1638. Newly released from Main Street Rag is May the Generations Die in the Right Order. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Georgia Review, Nimrod, and elsewhere.
Website: penelopeschott.com (coming soon)
Verse Daily: tinyurl.com/6e5v4e
ISBN: 9781933456683, 137 pages, $17.00
Turning Point Books, 2007
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