REBELLIOUS WOMEN IN POETRY

"Rebellious Women in Poetry" is a monthly column produced by Jessica Dyer and Susan Yount for Rebellious Magazine for Women. Each month, the column will feature a single poet/poem the columnists deem fits the theme of “rebellion.” The sole purpose is to share with a wider audience poetry that empowers women across all differences. As rebellious women, we seek to create and support a space where we can share poems—our small rebellions with big messages—with a wider audience. We find rebelles in poetic form, in rhyme or not, in content, in experiment; we find rebelles in the way they live their lives and the ideas they hold dear, in the activism they work toward. Modeled after former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” series, “Rebellious Women in Poetry” is made possible by rebellious women. All material is copy written by the authors.

Risa Denenberg’s 'Excess Light'

Karen Hawkins
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Risa Denenberg’s courage to write so boldly, plainly and master it with such brevity astounds me. Her honest, clear, and easy to read poetry goes against everything academia seems to put on a pedestal. I’m stunned by her frank language and stark energy. She writes poems straight-up and without ego. Even if you only read this one, I’m certain you’ll feel the rebell  Read more 

Jonterri Gadson’s Cardinal Sin

Karen Hawkins
Monday, March 11, 2013
The turning point in this poem, “It wasn’t my place / to teach other women’s children / about death” keeps me awake at night. That’s what good poems do—they resonate long after we’ve shut the book, turned out the light. Jonterri Gadson’s poem is full of lines that stick to the psyche, especially that first line, “I don’t love my  Read more 

Kayla Sargeson's 'Hellwave'

Karen Hawkins
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Dealing with the aftermath of trauma—emotional or physical—can shape a person forever. In Kayla Sargeson’s poem “Hellwave” the speaker—whose body has been previously traumatized, “cracked open like glass”—rebels against that pain by inflicting more pain upon her body, but on her own terms. By riding the hellwave, she wants to eliminat  Read more 

Kristine Ong Muslim's 'Self Portrait as Broken Home...'

Karen Hawkins
Sunday, January 06, 2013
Kristine Ong Muslim has been a great inspiration to me. For years, I’ve been following her poems and conversations in journals like Anobium Literary Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, Pank, Prick of the Spindle, Viral Cat and a hundred other amazing print and online journals. I’ve finally had a chance to read two of her recent books, Grim Series (Popcorn Press, 2012 (http:/  Read more 

'Aswang' by Barbara Jane Reyes

Karen Hawkins
Monday, November 26, 2012
In the movie Dolores Claiborne, Vera Donovan said, “Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.” Taken out of context, for me, this means that a women needs to dig deep into her bile to do the extraordinary work it takes to succeed and often, society views a woman’s extraordinary strength as,  Read more 

Stacey Waite's 'On the Occasion of Being Mistaken...'

Karen Hawkins
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Stacey Waite’s poetry rebels against and with identity, against and with the body. Waite’s poetry rebels against how outsiders perceive both as working together or against one another. This poem speaks to those moments of rebellion, and does it with humor and candor—an essential part of Waite’s poetic charm. Waite’s chapbook Love Poem to Androgyny contains a ser  Read more 

Marilyn Chin’s 'The Survivor'

Karen Hawkins
Sunday, September 23, 2012
I met Marilyn Chin at a week-long, Indiana University writing workshop in 2003. Not only did I find her poetry brutally direct, intensely honest and yes, confrontational—all qualities of a rebellious woman—I found that her personality and teaching style were also quite similar. I immediately adored her! I still do. In her courageous poem “How I Got That Name: An Essay o  Read more 

this little light of mine

Karen Hawkins
Monday, August 27, 2012
This poem by Deborah Jack further complicates the already complicated feelings surrounding Americans and their varied experiences and beliefs involving the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In an era where global issues are just as important as domestic ones, this poem asks the reader to think outside herself, outside the shared American experience of mourning some 3,000 and consider   Read more 

The Body Deformed by Tidal Forces

Karen Hawkins
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Utah, is one of the most rebellious poets I know. Whether it is her pop of hot pink hair or her poems turned sideways on the page—Bertram defies normalcy in smart, refreshing ways. Her poetry makes living our lives more interesting. In her book, "But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise," she combines   Read more 

Arielle Greenberg's 'Neighbors'

Karen Hawkins
Sunday, June 17, 2012
A rebel of the academy, where she spent years as a professor, Arielle Greenberg writes in “Neighbors” of the entrapment found within the “ivory tower,” though the message of this poem isn’t limited to just her job. We all have felt the entrapment of the “ash and roaches” in our own ways and coped with it in our own different ways--sometimes crying in the b  Read more 

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