With respect, Mairead, I think you're
rolling very different things together. Forums are very different beasts
to anthologies. I subscribe to a music forum because I can't discuss here
what I need to discuss there - although I have to say I've never heard of the
concept of a music forum just for women or just for mothers, so I admit I find
the concept of a forum for women poets or women poet mums a wee bit strange
even if they are fun. But hey, I'm not going to dictate who talks to
who. That's none of my business.
But on the subject of W.O. Anthologies which
are in the public arena and being marketed as a specific or specialist genre I
don't think they promote diversity I think they promote division. And as
Tilla pointed out that division defines you whether you like it or not.
Woman poet instead of poet.
That was never the intention - in fact the opposite was
the intention: to highlight women's poetry so we could become fully integrated
members of society not that we could have a shelf all to ourselves in a
bookshop. What you see as diversity I see as exclusion except it's not the
boys who are excluding us now it's ourselves. The irony is enough to make
me weep.
But thanks for the feedback because it has helped
me to clarify my reasons for declining these anthologies and I hope one day
they'll be a thing of the past - but that's up to women to make them a
thing of the past. Just say no. It's in our own interests.
Cheers,
Geraldine
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 3:38
AM
Subject: Re: Women Only?
I am glad though. I'm a fan of diversity & multiple,
even overlapping approaches. I'm a member of a few women-only listservs
& they're the liveliest forums (ahem fora?) I belong to. I was
reading something about transexuality today, which said it wasn't a category
but a modality. When I was a journalist, that's pretty much how I
thought of it: not a profession but a means of access. So I like being
able to participate in multiple spaces, why not? I think, historically,
there's a place for women-only anthologies, just as (or even moreso than)
there's a space for race-based anthologies, or nationally-based anthologies
(or listservs). They're all rhetorical means of expression &
articulation. Cave Canem is a really excellent residency program here,
founded by Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady, for building
community/challenge/exchange between African-American poets. I've seen
some of the outcomes. It make absolute sense to consolidate when
necessary, & to display & to proliferate. I went to a Cave Canem
reading at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York this year -- yes, that big burst
of power came from that deliberate consolidation, & I loved it &
learned. I don't have a problem with -only anthologies. Generally,
they're very self-conscious & thoughtful about reasons, being almost by
default in a defensive position. I'd love if
oh-boy-only-how-did-that-happen or nearly-only anthologies demonstrated more
of that thoughtfulness and
theorization.
Mairead