The Early Poems of Marge Piercy

The 'Grrrl' phenomenon is a contemporary expression of young women's humor and rage exploding in books and zines, concerts, films, and the internet. In homage to a new generation of tough young feminists, Marge Piercy presents a gathering of poems that reveal the poet as an early 'Grrrl.' Comprising over ninety poems selected from four books now out of print; poems previously published in literary magazines but never before collected and very early poems never published, this volume presents the bold and passionate political verse for which Piercy is well known alongside poems celebrating the sensual pleasures of gardening and cooking and sex; funny poems about New Year's Eve and warring boom boxes; vulnerable poems in which a young working class woman from the Midwest takes stock of herself and the limits of her world. For longtime fans and those new to Piercy's early work, this volume is an indispensable addition to the oeuvre of one of America's best-known and best-selling poets.

"Early Grrrl shows the skeptical eye how poets are born. This collection has many delights for Piercy fans . . .This is an important book. Many poems here are unpublished elsewhere. Many are indispensable works from one of America's most important poets."
— The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Piercy is a poet of womanhood and compassion, conscience and spirit, and her poems are as magnetic as mirrors: no one can resist them, and all, at least every woman, will catch a glimpse of themselves in their warm and dancing light … It is obvious from the bright, saucy and shrewd early poems collected in Early Grrrl that Piercy's gift … is the truth of both nature and nurture. Piercy has dedicated this collection of long-out-of-print and never-before-published works to the women of the vibrant Grrrl movement—a feisty form of feminist expression found in zines and music and on the web—because Piercy has been Grrrl long before Grrrl got its name."
— Booklist

"A glance at Early Grrrl: The Early poems of Marge Piercy shows … the skeptical eye how a poet is born, how she evolves and how a bunch of broken lines goes from being a novelty to poetry. Piercy starts off being talented, but she ends being muscularly gifted. Her best poems are like finely wrought sculptures…with firm grasp of emotional nuance. They challenge and delight and move. This collection has many delights for Piercy fans. This is an important book."
— The Chicago Tribune

"This writer likes to fly in the face of restraint, decorum and subtlety. [Early Grrrl] will be important to those who follow her work closely."
— Library Journal

"Early Grrl stands on its own as a collection of potent, forceful poems, but it is even sweeter to readers who will recognize in the adolescent Piercy the woman she became. What a thrill to watch as her signature themes, images and linguistic style take root."
— Lillith

"Early Grrrl resonates with the same passionate themes as her later poetry: politics; gardening; the Holocaust; women; writing; love; cats; and resonates with the contemporary energy of grrrl zines, music and manifestoes."
— Sojourner

Marge Piercy is the author of sixteen novels and sixteen books of poetry, including Colors Passing Through Us (Knopf); The Art of Blessing the Day (Knopf), a selection of her spiritual poems; and What Are Big Girls Made Of? (Knopf), selected as a Best Book of the Year by the American Library Association. Now out in paperback from Wm. Morrow/HaperCollins, Publishers Weekly calls her latest novel The Third Child "a biting contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet and an acidic commentary on Washington political culture." Piercy's So You Want To Write: How to Master the Craft of Writing Fiction and The Personal Narrative has been selected a "Best Book of the Year for Writers." The Washington Post calls her memoir, Sleeping with Cats (Wm. Morrow/HaperCollins): "An enriching pleasure. A lovingly written memoir by a woman in touch with what matters." She was born in Detroit and has lived in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Paris. She now lives with her husband in a small fishing village on Cape Cod and is at work on a book about Passover for Shocken/Random House, due out in Spring, 2006. Her new novel about the 19th Century sex wars in post-Civil War NYC is due from Wm. Morrow/HarperCollins in December, 2005. Find out much more about Marge Piercy on her website www.margepiercy.com.

POETRY
$15.00 Paperback Original
ISBN 0-9654578-6-9
160 pages/ 5 1/2 x 8 1/2

 

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