2018 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Women poets are actively addressing patriarchal history and myths, retelling the stories, and righting the truth of women who have been rendered either pariah or icon, creating and publishing vital, well-crafted work. Facilitated by poets Antoinette Brim, Kimberly Collins, and Georgia A. Popoff, this conversation, which continues from the 2017 roundtable, will center on the theme of women owning both voice and history in ways that empower and inform, with a particular focus on persona poetry as an extension of personal voice. Following our lineage, in spite of many challenges, women continue to write, compelling critical thought through language. The facilitators will share from works in progress to initiate the discussion, then will open to participants to discuss their own work, and the work of women who inspire them to address issues of race, class, gender, and accepted norms within the poetic canon and ways to change and expand them.