Imagine being a young poet, nurturing your craft without the benefit of established mentors. Imagine having never been in a class taught by a woman poet or not having a bookshelf filled with books written by living women poets. Luckily, young women poets today don't have to. Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker's Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections collects both personal essays and representative poems by women born after 1960 whose careers were influenced-directly or indirectly-by the women who preceded them.
The poets in this collection describe a new kind of influence, one less hierarchical, less patriarchal, and less anxious than forms of mentorship in the past. Vivid and intelligent, these twenty-four essays explore the complicated nature of the mentoring relationship, with all its joys and difficulties, and show how this new sense of writing out of female experience and within a community of writers has fundamentally changed women's poetry.
"I know of no other book like this one. It sheds light not on one woman poet or one facet of 'women's poetry,' but on the many ways the poetic tradition is handed down from one writer to another. The multiplicity of voices in this book along with the wide variety of aesthetics and backgrounds of the contributors make it unique in the field. It is a significant and needed contribution."—Kevin Prufer, editor, Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing
"Much has been written by and about women poets and women's poetry, but this is the first that addresses the topic of mentorship in a way that expands what we mean by 'tradition.' No other book looks at the question of how tradition moves from one generation to the next, from the younger generation's point of view. My own poetry students have talked about the need for exactly such a book. Women Poets on Mentorship will be important to today's (and tomorrow's) poetry community, as well as to women's studies."—Alicia Ostriker, author, Writing Like a Woman and Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women's Poetry in America
Jenny Factor on Marilyn Hacker, Beth Ann Fennelly on Denise Duhamel, Miranda Field on Fanny Howe, Katie Ford on Jorie Graham, Joy Katz on Sharon Olds, Valerie Martínez on Joy Harjo, Erika Meitner on Rita Dove, Aimee Nezhukumatathil on Naomi Shihab Nye, Eleni Sikelianos on Alice Notley, Tracy K. Smith on Lucie Brock-Broido, Crystal Williams on Lucille Clifton, and Rebecca Wolff on Molly Peacock.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Jenny Factor on Marilyn Hacker
poems by Jenny Factor
poems by Marilyn Hacker
Beth Ann Fennelly on Denise Duhamel
poems by Beth Ann Fennelly
poem by Denise Duhamel
Miranda Field on Fanny Howe
poems by Miranda Field
poem by Fanny Howe
Katie Ford on Jorie Graham
poems by Katie Ford
poem by Jorie Graham
Daphne Gottlieb on the Circle of Mentorship
poems by Daphne Gottlieb
Matthea Harvey on Anna Rabinowitz
poems by Matthea Harvey
poem by Anna Rabinowitz
Kirsten Kaschock on Being Nonmentored
poems by Kirsten Kaschock
Joy Katz on Sharon Olds
poems by Joy Katz
poem by Sharon Olds
Katy Lederer on Lyn Hejinian
poems by Katy Lederer
poems by Lyn Hejinian
Valerie Martinez on Joy Harjo
poems by Valerie Martinez
poems by Joy Harjo
Erika Meitner on Rita Dove
poems by Erika Meitner
poem by Rita Dove
Jennifer Moxley on Susan Howe
poems by Jennifer Moxley
poem by Susan Howe
Aimee Nezhukumatathil on Naomi Shihab Nye
poems by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
Mendi Lewis Obadike on Toi Derricotte
poems by Mendi Lewis Obadike
poem by Toi Derricotte
Danielle Pafunda on Susan Wheeler
poems by Daniells Pafunda
poem by Susan Wheeler
Kristin Prevallet on Anne Waldman
poem by Kristin Prevallet
poem by Anne Waldman
Cin Salach on Maureen Seaton
poems by Cin Salach and Maureen Seaton
Robyn Schiff on Gjertrud Schnackenberg
poem by Robyn Schiff
poem by Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Kathy Lou Schultz on Myung Mi Kim
poem by Kathy Lou Schultz
poems by Myung Mi Kim
Eleni Sikelianos on Alice Notley
poem by Eleni Sikelianos
poem by Alice Notley
Tracy K. Smith on Lucie Brock-Broido
poem by Tracy K. Smith
poem by Lucie Brock-Broido
Elizabeth Treadwell on Paula Gunn Allen
poem by Elizabeth Treadwell
poem by Paula Gunn Allen
Crystal Williams on Lucille Clifton
poems by Crystal Williams
poem by Lucille Clifton
Rebecca Wolff on Molly Peacock
poems by Rebecca Wolff
poem by Molly Peacock
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Index
