A Chorus for Peace: A Global Anthology of Poetry by Women - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087745812X ISBN 13: 9780877458128

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2002

Synopsis

Women poets from around the world are gathered here to raise their voices together, to speak out against violence and its calamitous effect upon the human soul. Yet there is also a thread of resilience here, an undercurrent of hope that points to the human ability to move on, to build a new life out of a shattered past.

Each poem addresses difficult issues concerning conflict and the lives of women. Some are spirited statements that demonstrate courage even in brutal circumstances; others rage at the perpetrators of war or simply mourn their losses. Together, these works reveal a deep consciousness of both the effects of violence and the human ability to move forward.

The women whose poems appear in this collection stand for peace. Many of them have seen war and strife on fronts both national and domestic; and they write graphically and poignantly, and sometimes ironically, about conflicts external and internal that tear up their lives and the lives of their families and neighbors. They write about the victims of war and oppression: bewildered and brutalized children, bereft wives and mothers, raped and mutilated women, tormented prisoners and soldiers. And they write about victims of a seemingly failed society and victims of struggling or failed human relationships.

At the same time, these writers are also crying for peace, searching for peace, and occasionally finding peace. In their search, they point the way for the rest of us.

About this title

About the Author:

Marilyn Arnold is the author of numerous books on twentieth-century American writers, including The Reader's Companion to Willa Cather's Fiction.She is emeritus professor of English at Brigham Young University. Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill is professor of psychology and director of the Women's Research Institute at Brigham Young University. Her studies on violence and peace in men and women have received wide publication in psychology journals. Kristen Tracy, whose work has been published in the Green Mountains Review, Quarterly West, Poet Lore,and other literary journals, teaches creative writing at Western Michigan University.

Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill is professor of psychology and director of the Women’s Research Institute at Brigham Young University.

Kristen Tracy, whose work has been published in the Green Mountains Review, Quarterly West, Poet Lore, and other literary journals, teaches creative writing at Western Michigan University.

From Booklist:

Because women are so often the innocent victims of violence; because women mourn their men who are killed in wars and mayhem; and because women are most often the ones who survive to care for others, their perspective on bloodshed is different than that of men, as is their vision of peace. This recognition inspired the editors of this clarion anthology to seek out poems by women who address the perverse, tragic habits of war and domestic violence with open eyes and valiant hearts. Their poems are astonishing in their poise, restraint, and dignity as the roil of emotions and politics is channeled into cauterizing irony and images of startling, hard-edged beauty. Global in its gifted contributors (from Jerusalem to Rwanda to Hiroshima) and universal in its visions, this exceptional anthology of probity and hope is both timeless and timely. Every poem--by Wistawa Szynborska, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lyn Lifshin, Fadwa Tuqan, Molly Peacock, and the rest--is a beam of light, an act of resistance and reform. Donna Seaman
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About this edition

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 087745812X
• ISBN 13: 9780877458128
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220
• Editor: Arnold Marilyn, Ballif-Spanvill Bonnie, Tracy Kristen