LITERATURE
09.08.09
LITERATURE, Poetry, Literary Theory, feminine, gritty, feminist
Bookslut just published a superbly frank essay by poet Courtney Queeney. Queeney discusses women poets, the breed she's supposedly part of, and questions what it actually means to stand up for your own. While she isn't decisive, Queeney manages to be exquisitely precise. "There exists a great politesse around women's poetry; and to write critically is, in some ways, to betray one's feminine self," writes Queeney. She starts out talking about the problem of "women's poetry" as a catch-all category that priveleges personhood over craft, then crescendos into close readings of work by Louise Gluck and Heather McHugh. The first half of the essay is below. Read the rest here. The Kings are Boring: Some Thoughts on Women's Poetry by
