The three mistresses of Headmistress Press, which launched four months ago to publish poetry by lesbians, sat down in cyberspace to talk about their poetic new venture. Mary Meriam: What came over me? I’m not sure, but suddenly I wanted a press, and I wanted it now. So last December, I asked Jessica Mason McFadden [...]
Does the name Mary Sidney ring a bell? No, I thought not. According to Tudor Place, she was born into the aristocracy in 1561; was “carefully educated, acquiring a knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew;” became a member of Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Household in 1575; lost her mother, father and brother (Sir Philip Sidney) in [...]
I’m perhaps not the best reader of Nicole Brossard’s new book of poems, White Piano, first published in 2011 in French as Piano Blanc and translated for this 2013 Coach House Books edition by Erin Moure and Robert Majzels. I’m not a translator, I don’t read many poems in translation and I tend to be disappointed by [...]
I tremble to write about the towering figure of Adrienne Rich, the great, revolutionary lesbian poet whose work seemed to single-handedly change the world for the better. Her poems seem engraved in my mind and heart, so that reading her last collection, Later Poems: Selected and New 1971-2012, was like a retrospective of my life [...]
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What good is laughing? We’re engaged in a tremendous battle for women’s rights; what’s so funny? Laughter is an empowerment tool. A good laugh relaxes and recharges us, makes us feel expansive and alive, fills us up with the world, makes us feel part of the world. I get my laughs from Ingrid Jungermann, a [...]
Why are her eyes closed? Why are her palms turned inward? The figure seems to possess superhuman power, stopping the jet-bombs with her hands. But this sculpture is not a cartoon fantasy; it is a memorial that invites contemplation and fills the viewer with comfort, remembrance and inspiration. Perhaps her eyes are closed in prayer, [...]
Lesbian-feminist movement pioneer Jeanne Córdova has been fabulous for a long time, organizing, agitating, publishing, speaking out. At last, we can get to know her better in her new book, When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love & Revolution, which garnered a Lammy, a Goldie and a Triangle, making it a triple-crown winner for lesbian writing. [...]
In 2009, a gay poet wrote to me, “I just don’t think lesbian poetry is that important.” This wounding statement fueled my engines, and I wrote a series of poems in which I placed my favorite poets in the sky as constellations, beginning with “Sappho the Ram,” and ending with “Jackie Kay the Fish.” When [...]
National Poetry Month may be over, but it’s never too late to recognize a wonderful poet and her poems. On April 19, Minnie Bruce Pratt’s latest collection, Inside the Money Machine, won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry from The Publishing Triangle, whose annual Awards honor the best lesbian and gay nonfiction, poetry [...]
I’m the editor of the two-year-old Lavender Review, an e-zine of lesbian poetry and art currently fundraising for its next two issues at Kickstarter. Contributors to the first four issues included Eileen Myles, Sarah Schulman, Eleanor Lerman, Ali Liebegott, Judy Grahn, Olga Broumas, Suzanne Gardinier, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Marilyn Hacker, Emily Roysdon, Carrie Moyer, Sarah Lucas, Stefanie [...]
