Post by shayepoet on Oct 16, 2008 16:21:45 GMT 2
Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv
Ed. Moira Richards, Rosemary Starace, Lesley Wheeler
Letters to the World is the first anthology of its kind—a feminist collaboration born from The Discussion of Women’s Poetry Listserv (Wom-po), a vibrant, inclusive electronic community founded in 1997 by Annie Finch. With an introduction by D’Arcy Randall and brief essays by the poets themselves reflecting on the history and spirit of the listserv, the book presents a rich array of viewpoints and poems. Letters to the World is a remarkable example of how the Internet has radically rearranged associations among poets, editors, and readers.
259 contributors, 19 countries, 5 continents
Australia * Canada * Cuba * France * Germany * Greece * India * Iran * Italy * Ireland * Mexico * New Zealand * Norway * Palestine * Philippines * Romania * South Africa * U.K. * United States
Reviews for Letters to the World:
“Perhaps the most complete cross section currently available of the great range of women writing poetry in English today.”
—from the Preface by Annie Finch[/blockquote]
"The collective voice of these bold, humorous, and striking poems captures a vast spectrum of feminine experience and proves "herstory" a force to be reckoned with. The reader is swept up by a perfect storm of tenderness, wit, narrative and lyrical vision, culled from the seasoned and emergent, those close to home and she who speaks to us continents away. Oh, Mighty Wom-po, long may you serve!"
--Dorianne Laux, author of Awake, What We Carry, Smoke, and Facts About the Moon
"Panoramic in scope, these Letters to the World and from the world of the on-line Wom-Po LISTSERV exult in a constellation of voices both individual and now connected. I can't help but think of Emily Dickinson, whose line provides the title for this anthology, privately binding her poems with needle and thread and storing them away. It's a gift that we have these poems available from a community that is passionate about poetry and women's voices. It's a conversation in which we should all be engaged. It's a new cosmos. Imagine if Dickinson had been able to log on."
--Gary Short, author of Theory of Twilight, Flying Over Sonny Liston, and 10 Moons and 13 Horses
"...This is an exceptional anthology, one to be savored slowly by poetry lovers everywhere. With a universal wisdom, tenderness and grace, these poets transcend the violence we see every day in the world around us. They are the Emily Dickinsons of their time, sending their messages to the world. To quote the Dickinson poem:
This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me.....
In this age of wars and cultural divisions, it's time the world listens and writes back in kind. That's what the Wom-Po listserv poets hope to accomplish with this anthology. Highly recommended."
--Laurel Johnson (Amazon)
"This fine anthology spans a huge range, as you might expect with a collection created in such a democratic manner. Sometimes range dilutes a collection, but here it works to the book's advantage, creating surprise as the poems spark against one another. Short essays by members of the list serve work like punctuation throughout, creating breathing room for the poems as well as commentary...
...All in all, this is a remarkable anthology."
--K. Roberts, Editor, Beltway Poetry Review
About the Editors-in-Chief:
Moira Richards writes poems and accounting textbooks in South Africa. Her tanka and collaborative work appear in journals in a half-dozen different countries across the planet.
Rosemary Starace writes and paints in western Massachusetts; she collaborates, consults, and organizes in support of artists and their work. Her work appears in Orion, Umbrella, Thanal, Junctures, and on her website at rosemarystarace.com.
Lesley Wheeler's most recent books are Voicing American Poetry: Sound and Performance from the 1920s to the Present and Scholarship Girl; her poems appear in Poetry, AGNI, Prairie Schooner, and other magazines. She has received fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is Professor and Chair of English at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
Editors:
Margo Berdeshevsky, Rachel Dacus, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Ellen Goldstein, Eloise Klein Healy, Ann Hostetler, Louisa Howerow, Lillian Baker Kennedy, Athena Kildegaard, D.O. Moore, Ren Powell
ISBN: 978-1-59709-099-5, 456 pages, $25.00 + S&H
Red Hen Press, 2008, Tradepaper
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Red Hen Press: tinyurl.com/32w4b3
Amazon: tinyurl.com/46atle
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