POEMS FROM THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT: The book, the reading (Sept 16, Amherst MA)

Poems from the Women’s Movement, a reading at Amherst College, on Wednesday 9/16/09, 7:30 pm, Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall

There will be an event celebrating Poems From the Women’s Movement, edited by Honor Moore and published by the Library of America, now in its second printing. Poets Joan Larkin and Honor Moore will read their poems and the work of others in the book. Several students from the Five Colleges will join them in reading poems from the anthology.

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” These lines by Muriel Rukeyser epitomize the spirit that animated a whole generation of women poets, from the 1960s to the 1980s, who in exploring the unspoken truth of their lives sparked a literary revolution.

Poems From the Women’s Movement, selected by O Magazine, is number 15 on Oprah’s Book Club summer reading list.

Joan Larkin’s newest book, My Body: New and Selected Poems (Hanging Loose Press), received the Publishing Triangle’s 2008 Audre Lorde Award. Honor Moore’s recent memoir The Bishop’s Daughter was a finalist for a National Book Critic’s Circle Award.

The reading will be followed by a reception and booksigning. Sponsored by the Amherst College English Department and Creative Writing Program. Community co-sponsors include the Massachusetts Review, the Poetry Center at Smith College, Perugia Press, The Everywoman’s Center at the University of Massachusetts, and the Smith College Program for the Study of Women and Gender