Category Archives: anthology

WWR reviewed by the Washington Independent Review of Books

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Exciting! The Washington Independent Review of Books has just released their review of Women Write Resistance. The reviewer, Grace Cavalieri, writes:

Let us now praise valiant women.

She also writes:

Each poet spins an experienced reality with felt life. There’s a personal mantra I tell students: don’t write poetry unless you have to. These poets write for readers, but not because of them, with clear messages and great imperatives about ignorance and consequence.

The review also features poet Ann Bracken’s important poem “Marital Privilege.”

Wow! Thank you.

recent interviews, news, and poetry

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I gave an interview yesterday with The Nebraska Girls Lit Hour. It was such fun! I’ve been listening to the interviews Wyatt Underwood and Melissa Alvarado post for some time and have enjoyed listening to them speak with Molly Peacock, Eloise Klein Healy, and many other fabulous poets and writers others. In my interview, I spoke about the letterpress books Farm Hands (2:10-7:50) and Unclose the Door (7:56-46:00), the full-length book Sprung, (58:58-60:52) and the anthology I edited Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (46:04-56:28). (I’m including the times, in case you want to zip to a particular book in the interview.) Thanks Melissa and Wyatt!

 

I was also included in a feature by Shelby Fleig “Spring Stanzas: Professors Pick Poetry Month Favorites” in the Daily Nebraskan with Ted Kooser, Grace Bauer, and Stacey Waite. We discussed our favorite poem. Here’s the picks: “The Listeners” by Walter de la Mare, “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden. “Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry” by Stephen Dunn, and “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton.

 

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Finally, in poetry related news, a feature by Shelby Fleig “UNL lecturer Laura Wiseman curates collection of women’s ‘resistance’ poetry” that runs in the Daily Nebraskan today includes interviews with WWR poets Deborah McGinn, Lucy Adkins, and Marjorie Saiser. Here’s Deborah :

“It was not the appeal of gathering tragedies, but gathering truth, restoration, healing and moving on when possible,” McGinn said. “Nothing is hidden in shame.”

Marge:

“The message we get from our culture is that poems about violence toward women should not be published,” Saiser said. “Keep still and write about something nice. Violence against women: don’t talk about it.”

Lucy:

“This collection deals courageously with difficult and dangerous subjects in a way I have not encountered before,” Adkins said. “The different voices, coming one after another, after another have a cumulative power that I believe will endure for a long, long time.”

Wow. I am endlessly amazed by the fine poets in this anthology. They truly astonish me and I am grateful for their work.

Recent press and events for UNCLOSE THE DOOR and WWR

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My letterpress book UNCLOSE THE DOOR was selected to be included in the show Heart & Hands:

Unclose the Door in Heart & Hands 2013 Exhibition
April 8 – May 31, 2013
Love Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE

Unclose the Door in Heart & Hands 2013 Exhibition
October 11 – November 14, 2013
Criss Library, University of Nebraska-Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska

Hearts and Hands will include: Artists’ Books | Altered Books | Collaborations | Digitally Printed Books | Fine Press Editions | One-of-a-Kind Books |Sculptural Book Objects.

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Unclose the Door was recently in the news. Bradley’s “In the Spotlight” piece notes:

A new collection of poems about the life of an Illinois-born suffragist carries the handiwork of Bradley students…Wiseman’s poems are based around the life and career of Matilda Fletcher, a 19th-century suffragist and distant ancestor of the author. Fletcher, a writer and lecturer who lived in the Midwest, traveled the country advocating for the women’s rights movement and shared the stage with noted feminists such as Susan B. Anthony.

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The Peoria Journal Star notes:

…the book and the written word are still honored as the core purpose of the printing press.

and from the press’s editor Robert Rowe:

“There’s something deeply satisfying about making a finely crafted object,” said Rowe.

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Unclose the Door  and my broadside “The Pomegranate” was featured at the Gold Quoin Press table at the Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City.

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Also, Les Femmes Folles reviewed the anthology Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence. It’s definitely worth quoting in full:

Poetry, like visual art, illuminates with the potential of societal change. Judy Chicago’s 2006 sculpture, “Snake Arm”—a raised a fist coiled by a golden snake—calls to mind fertility and connection while also questioning aggression and war. Her series, “The Holocaust Project” (1985-93) brought the darkened tragedy of the Holocaust’s violent “medical experiments” and sexual violation of women to attention. Faith Ringgold’s “The Flag is Bleeding #2,” (1973), a piece on violence against women, offers the American flag, a symbol for militarism and racial violence, and a stoic black mother who attempts to protect her children, while she, the children, and the flag bleed. These artistsdeal with violence and political issues head-on, garnering revolutionary enlightenment and societal change. Each of the diverse, enthralling poems in Wiseman’s Women Write Resistance is a work of art, revealing hope and cultural transformation. Exhilarating and groundbreaking, Women Write Resistance combines true heart-wrenching stories of gender abuse with revelatory “sassing” language demanding meaningful conversation on the universal issue and, hopefully, change. ~Sally Deskins, founding editor of Les Femmes Folles, journal of women in art

Wow! Thank you for this wonderful press!

Oh, and if you haven’t heard, there’s WWR events taking place in the next few weeks in NYC, Philly, and in Nebraska. I hope to see you there!

Recent Readings

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I gave three readings the first week of April to begin April’s poetry month celebration. I read with several readers in an Art Block Party at the LUX Center of the Arts.

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I also read with Twyla Hansen at Indigo Bridge Books on the theme of women and land. I was able to read a few poems from my forthcoming collection MEN AND THEIR WHIMS.

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I read with Marjorie Saiser at Tuesdays with Writers on the theme of women and creativity. The event included art by Wendy Bantam.

Part of that event included an interview on “Friday Live” at the Mill by William Stibor (starts 26:50, or 28:23) with both Marge and Wendy. It was completely fun to be on the radio and to be in that environment at the Mill in the morning.

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To celebrate Women’s History Month, I was asked to be the visiting writer at Bradley University. I read from my letterpress books UNCLOSE THE DOOR and FARM HANDS.

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The Collum-Davis Library there displayed my letterpress books.

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I also gave a poetry workshop and was the visiting writer at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

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They filmed the reading I gave in entirety at Teti Library. It’s featured in In Place LIVE. Fabulous.

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To officially release Women Write Resistance, several WWR poets joined me in “Shakespeare’s Sister” for Women’s Week on UNL’s campus, including Becky Faber, Grace Bauer, Sarah A. Chavez, Deborah McGinn, Lucy Adkins, Twyla Hansen, and more. I also read from the critical introduction and preface to Women Write Resistance in No Limits.

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Finally, I read in March’s First Friday event in Femme Qui Bercent with Cat Dixon, Marilyn Coffey, Mary Spittler, Denise Eileen Brady, and more at Noyes Gallery.

And, because I forgot to mention this in February’s news, I also read in Poetry at the Moon with Fran Higgins.

February News

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An excerpt of the letterpress book Unclose the Door isin Extract(s). A poem plus a feature from my forthcoming chapbook Men and their Whims is in Escape into Life. I have poems in the current issues of Martian Lit, The Meadowland Review, and  Thirteen Myna Birds, the latter contains a poem that is forthcoming in my chapbook from Finishing Line Press. My review “Wishes for New Orleans: The Wishing Tomb by Amanda Autcher,” is in the spring 2013 issue of Prairie Schooner. I have poems forthcoming in Sliver of Stone, Strange Horizons, Martian Lit, The Penwood Review, and in the anthology Out of the Depths. Two poems from Sprung and three poems from First Wife are forthcoming as the feature in Poetry Magazine, Summer 2013. I’m also up in the department’s January newsletter.

I read in One Billion Rising: Lincoln on Valentine’s Day from my full-length book Sprung and from the  anthology I have edited Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013).

I read in a reading at Meadowlark to raise money for the local production of the Vagina Monologues.

I also read in What Will Her Kids Think?, Sally Deskins’ show at the end of the month.

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A busy, but fun month!

 

WWR book trailer

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Here’s the amazing book trailer for Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence just out from Hyacinth Girl Press.

I so hope you’ll join us at 4-5pm, room 340 Nebraska Union, at UNL Featuring readings from Women Write Resistance, an anthology of poetry that I edited. The collection celebrates the utilization of transformative art in the movement against gender violence in the effort to create a more peaceful world, one woman at a time.

February Readings

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This month, I’m giving three readings locally. The first is in the movement One Billion Rising that raises awareness about gender violence.

I’m reading poems from some of my recent chapbooks and new work. I’ll also have pre-sale order forms ready for the anthology I’m editing Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence.

Reading (poetry) in One Billion Rising: Lincoln with Barbara Salvatore, Lucy Adkins, Juantia Rice and more
7:30-9:30 p.m., February 14, 2013
Gratitude Bakery, 1551 North Cotner Street, Lincoln, NE

Towards the end of the month, I’m reading in Omaha in a poetry reading and art exhibit on motherhood, media representation, and the female body. I can’t wait to check out Sally Deskin’s exhibit.

Reading (poetry) in What Will Her Kids Think? with Sally Deskins, Cat Dixon, Megan Gannon, Rebecca Rotert, Michelle Troxclair, Felicia Webster, and Fran Higgins
5 p.m., February 24, 2013
Star Deli Gallery, 6114 Military Ave, Benson, Omaha, NE

Finally, I’m giving a reading from my first full-length book Sprung in Poetry at the Moon.

Reading (poetry) in Poetry at the Moon with Fran Higgins
7 p.m., February 25, 2013
Crescent Moon, 140 N 8th St #10, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508

I hope I’ll see you!