A different kind of poetry book

Bowery Women: Poems

What is your signature poem? This question was posed to 76 women poets who have delighted, inspired, and shocked audiences at New York City’s Bowery Poetry Club. And so was born Bowery Women: Poems, an extraordinary anthology including such national treasures as Anne Waldman, Ana Castillo, Sapphire, Jessica Hagedorn, Marie Ponsot, and Marie Howe, former Broadway and HBO Def Jam poets like Ishle Yi Park and Suheir Hammad, slam winners, plus a crowd of new talents.

One poet, one poem, one photo. Each poet offers her greatest hit. In some cases, it is the one poem they’re best known for, in others, it is the one most published or most often requested, and in still others, it’s a personal favorite.

The works range from elegant classical poems with chiseled lines to free-flowing “slam” pieces to experimental forms. The poets, too, are diverse: multi-ethnic, teens to octogenarians, academics to drop-outs, urban to rural.

What emerges is an entertaining, highly readable, challenging and stimulating survey of (mostly) American women poets writing today.

New York’s Bowery Poetry Club is where it all started. An extraordinary venue which promotes poetry in all its forms, it’s the brainchild of co-editor, poet and educator, Bob Holman. Holman ran readings at St. Mark’s and the Nuyorican Poets Café, where he founded and emceed their Poetry Slams from 1988-1996. He’s also created Mouth Almighty, the spoken word division of Mercury Records, produced poetry shows for PBS and MTV, and published seven books, including Aloud, a poetry anthology which he edited with Miguel Algarin, which won an American Book Award. Holman teaches at Columbia University. Co-editor Marjorie Tesser, a former civil rights lawyer, is a poet who co-edits The Mom Egg, a literary journal.

The book is the third in the Bowery Books series, published by the non-profit Bowery Arts & Science, Ltd., in conjunction with YBK Publishing. Prior releases were Taylor Mead’s A Simple Country Girl, and The Bowery Bartenders’ Big Book of Poems.