Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Women's Poetry

by Felicia Mitchell

Book Overview

Over the last generation, Appalachia has produced a number of women poets who have refined and redefined the boundaries of the region's literature and identity. Her Words focuses on the work of twenty... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572331968
• ISBN13: 9781572331969
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Treasure Trove of Women's Voices

Women poets in Appalachia have been pretty much overshadowed by their male counterparts--Fred Chappell, Robert Morgan, Charles Wright, for example. But tucked away in their coves and hollows, some women have been writing poetry that is the equal of those celebrated male poets and have been doing so for quite a while. This collection begins to give these women their due. Although I could have wished for more poems to go along with the essays, I am happy to have this introductory edition, because I hope it will spur more interest in women poets in Appalachia. It is a fine companion volume to Joyce Dyer's wonderful BLOODROOT, a collection of essays by Appalachian women writers. Who could doubt that poets like Kathryn Stripling Byer, Maggie Anderson, George Ella Lyon, and Lynn Powell are as deserving of notice and praise as their male counterparts? The essays on Byer and Powell are especially well done. The authors, Anne Richman and John Lang, are excellent critics and their observations illuminate the work of two writers who have themselves illuminated their place in the southern Appalachians. Felicia Mitchell has done poetry lovers a huge favor by gathering together the voices in this book. The authors of the essays are, as she says, "open-minded critics whose balanced analyses help to shed light not only on Appalachian women's poetry but also on a segment of contemporary poetry that is far richer than some people yet know--but will, if this book does its job." Let's hope that it does. Move over Jorie Graham, Louise Gluck, Ellen Voigt, and others "up there" in your literary hotbeds. These mountain women are writing poetry that spins its language in ways more engaging than most of what shows up in the pages of THE NEW YORKER or the Norton Series of Poets. Give them a listen. You'll like what you hear.