Women Poets, Feminism and the Sonnet in the Twentieth and Twenty- First Centuries: an American Narrative

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Women Poets, Feminism and the Sonnet in the Twentieth and Twenty- First Centuries: an American Narrative WOMEN POETS, FEMINISM AND THE SONNET IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY- FIRST CENTURIES: AN AMERICAN NARRATIVE by JADE CRADDOCK A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham April 2013 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Marion Thain, for helping me realise this thesis. Thanks also go to Deborah Longworth for stepping in and seeing the project through to completion, and Dick Ellis for providing a valuable perspective. I am extremely grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for providing funding for my thesis, enabling me to concentrate fully on the project. During my research, I have relied on the help of a number of poets to uncover the breadth of women’s sonneteering in the contemporary era: Kim Bridgford, Andrea Carter Brown, Sarah Busse, Melissa Cannon, Wanda Coleman, Martha Collins, Denise Duhamel, Sarah Gorham, Susan Gubernat, Heidi Hart, Lyn Hejinian, Julie Kane, Sylvia Kantaris, Tatyana Mishel, Harryette Mullen, Wanda Phipps, Denise Riley, Stephanie Strickland, Marilyn L. Taylor and Kathrine Varnes. My thanks also to Marsha Bryant, Nancy Honicker, Stacy Hubbard, Lynn Keller and David Knox for providing me with their essays. Thanks go to all of those poets and executors who have allowed me to cite poems in full in the thesis, including: Holly Peppe, literary executor for Edna St.Vincent Millay, Claire Reinertsen, Copyright & Permissions Manager, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc./Liveright Publishing Corp. for citation of Adrienne Rich, Marilyn Hacker, Marilyn Nelson and Erica Bossier, Permissions Co-ordinator, LSU Press, Moira Egan, Tatyana Mishel, and Juliana Spahr. Special mention must go to Moira Egan, Marilyn Nelson, and Marilyn Hacker who proved to be especially accommodating and helpful. The following permissions have been granted: "Bluebeard" (c) 1917, 1945 by Edna St. Vincent Millay 'Gazing upon him now, severe and dead (c) 1923, 1951 by Edna St. Vincent Millay “Yet in an hour to come, disdainful dust” (c) 1931, 1958 by Edna St. Vincent Millay Reprinted with permission of Holly Peppe, Literary Executor, The Millay Society. "The Insusceptibles" and the lines from "Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law" are reprinted from COLLECTED EARLY POEMS: 1950-1970 by Adrienne Rich, by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1993, 1967, 1963, 1955 by Adrienne Rich. Poem VI of "Twenty-One Love Poems" is reprinted from THE FACT OF A DOORFRAME: Selected Poems 1950-2001 by Adrienne Rich, by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 2002 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright (c) 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. There have been several special teachers and tutors throughout my life who have inspired, encouraged and helped me get to where I am today and one particular piece of advice that has been my inspiration: reach for the moon and even if you miss you’ll be amongst the stars. I am grateful to these teachers for feeding my curiosity and pushing me to achieve. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my family without whom none of this would have been possible. To my nan who takes so much pride in all that I do. To my parents for their unerring belief and support. To my brother for making me do this in the first place and to Max for being there for me throughout. With all my love. Dedication In loving memory of my grandparents. Abstract Initially developed and perfected by male poets, the history of the sonnet has been characterised by androcentrism. Yet from its inception the sonnet has also been adopted by women. In recent years feminist critics have begun to redress the form’s gender imbalance, but most studies of the female-authored sonnet have excluded the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and thus one of the most important periods in women’s history – the rise of feminism – leading to a flawed narrative of the genre. Repositioning Edna St. Vincent Millay as the starting point in a twentieth-century tradition, this study begins where most others end and examines how the emergence and development of feminism, specifically in an American context, underscores a significant female narrative of the sonnet that emerges outside of the male tradition. By reading the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Adrienne Rich, Marilyn Hacker, Marilyn Nelson and Moira Egan within their specific feminist contexts and within the broader trajectory of feminism, it is possible to see how women in the era took ownership of the form. Ultimately, the thesis suggests that feminism has shaped an important narrative in the history of the genre that means today the sonnet is no longer exclusively male. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1 – EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY AND THE EMERGENCE OF A FEMINIST SONNET TRADITION ............................................................................ 31 CHAPTER 2 – FEMINIST RADICALISATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADRIENNE RICH’S SONNETEERING .................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 3 – MARILYN HACKER AND THE SONNET IN A NEW FORMALIST AGE...................................................................................................................... ..130 CHAPTER 4 – WOMEN-OF-COLOUR FEMINISM AND THE SONNETS OF MARILYN NELSON ............................................................................................... 177 CHAPTER 5 – MOIRA EGAN AND THE SONNET IN THE POSTFEMINIST AGE........................................................................................................................ 226 CONCLUSION – THE FEMALE-AUTHORED SONNET IN THE FEMINIST FOURTH WAVE? .................................................................................................. 286 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 305 APPENDIX A – FEMALE SONNETEERS FOR A FEMINIST NARRATIVE OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES ........................................ 350 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: AFTER ROGER D. HODGE (SPAHR, POWERSONNETS) ............... 296 Introduction Our silence attests…to a failure to ask the right questions about how traditional poetic forms such as the sonnet may serve the needs of women poets. (Fried 1) This thesis intends to challenge the dominant thinking on the androcentrism of the sonnet. It seeks to claim for female poets in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries not only greater recognition and value for their contributions to the genre, and admittance to the canon, but also the distinction of a vital tradition accessible via a feminist epistemology. Indeed, the thesis will examine how the development of feminism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a specific focus on an American context, has facilitated the development of a vital female-authored sonnet tradition that has released the genre from its patriarchal bias and made it into a legitimate and powerful female mode. In recent history feminist critics have been keen to uncover and promote female presence in the sonnet tradition. However, whilst it is accepted that women can, and have, written sonnets, theirs is still a peripheral and secondary story, with continued debate over women’s claims upon the sonnet and the gendered ideology of the genre. Some critics have suggested that because of the sonnet’s masculine tradition and phallic direction, despite her intentions and politics, the female poet who appropriates the form, inevitably ends up being implicated in the sexist ideology of the genre and failing to assert a genuine female narrative (Homans 573- 4; Jones 58). As Natasha Distiller has argued, the position of the female sonneteer 1 is something of an oxymoron (163). However, other than a cursory nod towards Edna St. Vincent Millay, studies of the female-authored sonnet have failed to address the radically transformative period of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Yet it is this period that witnessed a revolution in women’s lives, with the most sustained and successful exposure of, and challenge against, oppressive gender systems and hierarchies. The current gap in the female-authored sonnet narrative threatens to leave us with a skewed tradition and incomplete knowledge of the genre. Indeed, it is only within the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (at least publically) that female sonneteers have been as prolific as male sonneteers; thus without acknowledgment of this period the sonnet will continue to be associated primarily with men. By reading the works of five American female sonneteers in light of their particular feminist contexts, the thesis will demonstrate the importance of women’s sonnets in this period. Even though it has been suggested that the sonnet can never truly escape its masculine past and
Recommended publications
  • Turisme I Gènere: Implementació a L'aula De La
    TURISME I GÈNERE: IMPLEMENTACIÓ A L’AULA DE LA PERSPECTIVA FEMINISTA PROJECTE FINAL DE GRAU EN TURISME MENCIÓ EN DIRECCIÓ TURÍSTICA Barcelona, gener de 2020 RESUM La indústria turística, com a sector econòmic present arreu del planeta, forma part de les estructures de poder globals, i hi interactua tant reproduint les barreres que comporten, com alhora possibilitant la reducció de la pobresa. D’altra banda, la perspectiva de gènere, provinent de múltiples corrents feministes, és integral, transversal i multidisciplinar, per la qual cosa es situa com una plataforma que permet llegir la realitat amb nous criteris. En aquest cas, aplicar aquesta visió holística al turisme suposa la revisió d’un gran nombre de dinàmiques pròpies de la indústria, així com també de fets estructurals que es reprodueixen en l’activitat turística. El feminisme, doncs, permet situar les desigualtats de gènere al centre de l’anàlisi, per tal d’entendre de quines maneres aquestes es reprodueixen en la indústria turística i quins recursos existeixen per a reduir-les. L’objectiu d’aquest Projecte de Final de Grau és la creació d’una assignatura optativa que permeti implementar la perspectiva de gènere a les aules universitàries; amb la finalitat de potenciar el pensament crític de les estudiants i construir noves mirades que permetin apostar per un turisme inclusiu i sostenible. La metodologia emprada en aquesta investigació ha estat una revisió crítica de 836 articles provinents de la base de dades Scopus; a partir dels quals s’han identificat les principals temàtiques i debats presents en aquest àmbit de coneixement. A partir d’aquests resultats s’ha creat el programa de l’assignatura optativa, que ha passat per una fase de validació consistent en dues entrevistes en profunditat a expertes en aquesta temàtica.
    [Show full text]
  • Pornography, Morality, and Harm: Why Miller Should Survive Lawrence
    File: 02-DIONNE-Revised.doc Created on: 3/12/2008 1:29 PM Last Printed: 3/12/2008 1:34 PM 2008] 611 PORNOGRAPHY, MORALITY, AND HARM: WHY MILLER SHOULD SURVIVE LAWRENCE Elizabeth Harmer Dionne∗ INTRODUCTION In 2003, a divided Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas1 declared that morality, absent third-party harm, is an insufficient basis for criminal legis- lation that restricts private, consensual sexual conduct.2 In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Scalia declared that this “called into question” state laws against obscenity (among others), as such laws are “based on moral choices.”3 Justice Scalia does not specifically reference Miller v. Califor- nia,4 the last case in which the Supreme Court directly addressed the issue of whether the government may suppress obscenity. However, if, as Justice Scalia suggests, obscenity laws have their primary basis in private morality, the governing case that permits such laws must countenance such a moral basis. The logical conclusion is that Lawrence calls Miller, which provides the legal test for determining obscenity, into question.5 ∗ John M. Olin Fellow in Law, Harvard Law School. Wellesley College (B.A.), University of Cambridge (M. Phil., Marshall Scholar), Stanford Law School (J.D.). The author thanks Professors Frederick Schauer, Thomas Grey, and Daryl Levinson for their helpful comments on this Article. She also thanks the editorial staff of GEORGE MASON LAW REVIEW for their able assistance in bringing this Article to fruition. 1 539 U.S. 558 (2003). 2 Id. at 571 (“The issue is whether the majority may use the power of the state to enforce these views on the whole society through operation of the criminal law.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 GOV 1029 Feminist Political Thought TIMES to BE CONFIRMED
    GOV 1029 Feminist Political Thought TIMES TO BE CONFIRMED: provisionally, Tuesday 1:30-2:45, Thursday TBC Fall Semester 2020 Professor Katrina Forrester Office Hours: TBC E-mail: [email protected] Teaching Fellows: Celia Eckert, Soren Dudley, Kierstan Carter, Eve O’Connor Course Description: What is feminism? What is patriarchy? What and who is a woman? How does gender relate to sexuality, and to class and race? Should housework be waged, should sex be for sale, and should feminists trust the state? This course is an introduction to feminist political thought since the mid-twentieth century. It introduces students to classic texts of late twentieth-century feminism, explores the key arguments that have preoccupied radical, socialist, liberal, Black, postcolonial and queer feminists, examines how these arguments have changed over time, and asks how debates about equality, work, and identity matter today. We will proceed chronologically, reading texts mostly written during feminism’s so-called ‘second wave’, by a range of influential thinkers including Simone de Beauvoir, Shulamith Firestone, bell hooks and Catharine MacKinnon. We will examine how feminists theorized patriarchy, capitalism, labor, property and the state; the relationship of claims of sex, gender, race, and class; the development of contemporary ideas about sexuality, identity, and gender; and how and whether these ideas change how fundamental problems in political theory are understood. 1 Course Requirements: Undergraduate students: 1. Participation (25%): a. Class Participation (15%) Class Participation is an essential part of making a section work. Participation means more than just attendance. You are expected to come to each class ready to discuss the assigned material.
    [Show full text]
  • POETRY, FEMINISM, and PROTEST Introduction
    POETRY, FEMINISM, AND PROTEST Introduction In this set of lessons, students will explore the often-overlooked relationship between poetry and politics. Poets like Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde create vital dialogue about the relationship between the daily lives of women and structures of power. The poems and essays below will be examined through a feminist-activist lens. Ø Anne Sexton, “Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman” Ø Adrienne Rich, “Anne Sexton: 1928- 1974” Ø Audre Lorde, “Power” and “Poetry is Not a Luxury” Essential Question: Ø How can poetry serve as a form of feminist social protest? FOR THE TEACHER: ADRIENNE RICH AND ANNE SEXTON 1. Explain to students that after Anne Sexton took her own life in 1974, Adrienne Rich delivered a eulogy for Sexton, celebrating her poem “Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman.” 2. Explain to the students how Sexton’s poem is central to Rich’s eulogy of Sexton and helps to better illustrate what Rich and others mean when they try and expand the definition of feminist poetry. 3. Ask your students to read the poem by Sexton and essay by Rich and to complete the attached questions. Then use those answers to inform a class discussion. 4. Feminist theorist bell hooks defines feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” After students have answered the worksheet questions, share hooks’s definition of feminism and ask students to consider how Rich’s essay and Sexton’s poem address feminist ideas or goals. 5. For further reading: In a 2013 issue on women in fiction, Vice magaZine included a fashion spread of seven models depicting famous female writers who died by suicide, but without any mention of the writers’ works.
    [Show full text]
  • Remarks by Redstockings Speaker Marisa Figueiredo Shulamith Firestone Memorial September 23, 2012
    Remarks by Redstockings speaker Marisa Figueiredo Shulamith Firestone Memorial September 23, 2012 In 1978, at the age of 16, while In high school, I lived in Akron, Ohio. I went to to the public library on weekends and on one shelf were three books in a row that changed my life forever and are the reason I am here today: Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex The Case for Feminist Revolution, and Redstockings' Feminist Revolution. With my consciousness raised to the point of passionately identifying myself as a radical feminist in the tradition each book represented, I ardently wanted to connect with Shulamith Firestone and Redstockings , so I wrote to both. I heard back from Redstockings, not Shulamith, and since 1984, I have been active in Redstockings. On May Day in 1986, Redstockings organized a Memorial for Simone de Beauvoir and I felt deeply honored when asked by Kathie Sarachild to read Shulamith's Firestone's tribute she had sent to the Memorial. It was several sentences in Shulamith's beautiful handwriting saying that Simone de Beauvoir had fired her youthful ambitions at age 16 and my heart was pounding as I read it, because Shulamith had fired my youthful ambitions at age 16, too! In the early 1990s, Kathie Sarachild introduced me to Shulamith Firestone, and I remember immediately feeling Shulamith's intensity of observation and perception of details unnoticed by others. All this despite her physical vulnerability that overwhelmed me, which I soon learned from her, resulted from side effects of her medication and a recent hospitalization.
    [Show full text]
  • Final Thesis Phil Isherwood
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Bolton Institutional Repository (UBIR) Numinous Connections: Poetry in the Hospice Philip Isherwood A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Bolton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2015 Numinous Connections - Poetry in the Hospice - Philip Isherwood A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Bolton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Philip Isherwood Numinous Connections: Poetry in the Hospice Abstract This thesis offers a distinctive approach to writing poetry which has been developed within the context of the author’s/researcher’s observations of, and participation in, end of life care. It will be argued that poetry can have a unique role in supporting patients within a hospice setting. It emerges that there may be a further role of the poem as ‘memorial art’. The practical base to the research has been writing poetry based on conversations with, and the creative artwork of, hospice patients throughout a period of over three years. These working methods have enabled the author to produce a substantial collection of poetry, presented at the start of the thesis, as the prime evidence of the value of the approach. In this research context the ‘numinous’ is interpreted from its extended definition as relating to transcendence, wonder and otherness. Particular components of the writing practice have formed a ‘numinous poetics’. The numinous as a focus in this research has emerged through careful and scholarly reading and reflection as part of the author’s response to the perceived qualities and value of the poems as they were written.
    [Show full text]
  • Carol Ann Duffy
    NCTE Verse - Carol Ann Duffy mail.google.com/mail/u/1 Poet of the Day: Carol Ann Duffy 1/5 Carol Ann Duffy, born in 1955, became the first female poet laureate of Britain in 2009. She often explores the perspectives of the voiceless women of history, mythology, and fairy tales as well as those on the fringes of society in her dramatic monologues. Duffy is most well-known for her collections Standing Female Nude (1985) and The World’s Wife (1999). She has also written plays and poetry for children. CC image “Carol Ann Duffy 8 Nov 2013 5” courtesy of Steel Wool on Flickr under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. This poet belongs in our classrooms because… she explores the voices of those who have traditionally been silenced. Her poetry uses humor and emotion with simple language that hits us in the gut with its truth. It’s poetry that students can understand quickly but can also explore at length, uncovering its layers and relating to the speakers and their experiences. A Poem by Carol Ann Duffy Warming Her Pearls for Judith Radstone Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress bids me wear them, warm them, until evening when I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her, 2/5 resting in the Yellow Room, contemplating silk or taffeta, which gown tonight? She fans herself whilst I work willingly, my slow heat entering each pearl. Slack on my neck, her rope.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation : FEMINISM À LA QUEBEC
    ABSTRACT Title of dissertation : FEMINISM À LA QUEBEC: IDEOLOGICAL TRAVELINGS OF AMERICAN AND FRENCH THOUGHT (1960-2010) Geneviève Pagé, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Claire Moses Department of Women’s Studies This dissertation examines the travelings of three concepts central to feminism – gender, queer, and intersectionality – as they move between the United States, France, and Quebec. The concept of gender, central to U.S. feminism, is relatively absent from feminist theory in France and Quebec until the 1990s; rather, drawing on Marxist and existentialist traditions, French and Quebec feminists will deploy the term “rapports sociaux de sexe” to identify that differences among women and men are grounded in social structure and, further, that the two classes, women and men, are constituted in hierarchicized relation. The term queer, linguistically subversive in English but lacking this potential when translated into French, is mainly resisted by French materialist feminists and feminist scholars in Quebec on the basis that it displaces social reality focusing instead on resistance through performance. Nonetheless, in Quebec, activists groups such as Les panthères rose are able to present a version of queer that also addresses systemic oppressions. Finally, the concept of intersectionality, theorized first by feminists of color in the U.S. trying to reconcile their allegiances to multiple struggles, provides a useful tool for analyzing the interaction between different systems of oppression and how they shape the lives of people differently located. In France, a similar desire to theorize multiple oppressions led to the development of the concept of “consubstantialité des rapports sociaux,” whereby social “rapports” of sex and of socio- economic class are co-constituted.
    [Show full text]
  • "I Am Not Certain I Will / Keep This Word" Victoria Parker Rhode Island College, Vparker [email protected]
    Rhode Island College Digital Commons @ RIC Honors Projects Overview Honors Projects 2016 "I Am Not Certain I Will / Keep This Word" Victoria Parker Rhode Island College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects Part of the Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Poetry Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Parker, Victoria, ""I Am Not Certain I Will / Keep This Word"" (2016). Honors Projects Overview. 121. https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects/121 This Honors is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Projects at Digital Commons @ RIC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects Overview by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ RIC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “I AM NOT CERTAIN I WILL / KEEP THIS WORD”: LOUISE GLÜCK’S REVISIONIST MYTHMAKING By Victoria Parker An Honors Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors In The Department of English Faculty of Arts and Sciences Rhode Island College 2016 Parker 2 “I AM NOT CERTAIN I WILL / KEEP THIS WORD”: LOUISE GLÜCK’S REVISIONIST MYTHMAKING An Undergraduate Honors Project Presented By Victoria Parker To Department of English Approved: ___________________________________ _______________ Project Advisor Date ___________________________________ _______________ Honors Committee Chair Date ___________________________________ _______________ Department Chair Date Parker 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS
    [Show full text]
  • We Control It on Our End, and Now It's up to You" -- Exploitation, Empowerment, and Ethical Portrayals of the Pornography Industry Julie E
    Student Publications Student Scholarship Spring 2017 "We control it on our end, and now it's up to you" -- Exploitation, Empowerment, and Ethical Portrayals of the Pornography Industry Julie E. Davin Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, and the Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Davin, Julie E., ""We control it on our end, and now it's up to you" -- Exploitation, Empowerment, and Ethical Portrayals of the Pornography Industry" (2017). Student Publications. 543. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/543 This open access student research paper is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "We control it on our end, and now it's up to you" -- Exploitation, Empowerment, and Ethical Portrayals of the Pornography Industry Abstract Documentaries about pornography are beginning to constitute an entirely new subgenre of film. Big Hollywood names like James Franco and Rashida Jones are jumping on the bandwagon, using their influence and resources to invest in a type of audiovisual knowledge production far less mainstream than that in which they usually participate. The films that have resulted from this new movement are undoubtedly persuasive, no matter which side of the debate over pornography these directors have respectively chosen to represent. Moreover, regardless of the side(s) that audience members may have taken in the so-called “feminist porn debates,” one cannot ignore the rhetorical strength of the arguments presented in a wide variety of documentaries about pornography.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Shadow-Bird by Annie Finch Annie Finch
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Shadow-Bird by Annie Finch Annie Finch. Annie Finch (born October 31, 1956 in New Rochelle / New York ) is an American poet, translator, librettist, editor and literary critic. Finch graduated from Yale University , earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Houston, and a doctorate from Stanford University . She directs the Stonecast creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine . In addition to essays and literary theoretical writings, Finch published several volumes of poetry and long poems . Dance and music events inspired by their works have been held at the Spoleto Festival , the Lawrence Conservatory , the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art . She also wrote the librettos for the operas Lily Among the Goddesses and Marina , which were composed by Deborah Drattell . She was u. a. was awarded scholarships from the Black Earth Institute and the Wesleyan Writers Conference and received the 2009 Robert Fitzgerald Award . The book of poetry Calendars was shortlisted for the Foreword Poetry Book of the Year Award in 2010 . Annie Finch. Annie Finch (born 1956) is an American poet. She is the author or editor of fifteen books of poetry, translation, and criticism, including five books of poetry and poetry in translation, as well as opera libretti and poetic collaborations with visual art, music, theater, and dance. Finch is known for her use of a variety of poetic forms, sometimes simple, sometimes incantatory, and sometimes intricate, including traditional forms, invented forms, and performance-based chants. Her writings on poetry address topics including meter and prosody, postmodern form, and the place of poetry in contemporary life.
    [Show full text]
  • Women in the Federal Parliament
    PAPERS ON PARLIAMENT Number 17 September 1992 Trust the Women Women in the Federal Parliament Published and Printed by the Department of the Senate Parliament House, Canberra ISSN 1031-976X Papers on Parliament is edited and managed by the Research Section, Senate Department. All inquiries should be made to: The Director of Research Procedure Office Senate Department Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Telephone: (06) 277 3061 The Department of the Senate acknowledges the assistance of the Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff. First published 1992 Reprinted 1993 Cover design: Conroy + Donovan, Canberra Note This issue of Papers on Parliament brings together a collection of papers given during the first half of 1992 as part of the Senate Department's Occasional Lecture series and in conjunction with an exhibition on the history of women in the federal Parliament, entitled, Trust the Women. Also included in this issue is the address given by Senator Patricia Giles at the opening of the Trust the Women exhibition which took place on 27 February 1992. The exhibition was held in the public area at Parliament House, Canberra and will remain in place until the end of June 1993. Senator Patricia Giles has represented the Australian Labor Party for Western Australia since 1980 having served on numerous Senate committees as well as having been an inaugural member of the World Women Parliamentarians for Peace and, at one time, its President. Dr Marian Sawer is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Canberra, and has written widely on women in Australian society, including, with Marian Simms, A Woman's Place: Women and Politics in Australia.
    [Show full text]