Ain't I A Woman! A Book of Women's Poetry from Around the World - Softcover

Spanning the centuries from Sappho's Greece to tenth-century Japan, from nineteenth-century Chile to Zindziswa Mandela's twentieth-century South Africa, the voices of these women poets express themes of love, injustice, motherhood, and loss, and the oppressions of race and sex. The sequence of the poems moves from youth to old age, and they bear witness to the triumphs as well as the pain and frustration of women in many times and in many places.
Among the many poets whose work is included are Anna Akhmatova, Maya Angelou, Judith Kazantzis, Gabriela Mistral, Marge Piercy, Irina Ratushinskaya and Alice Walker.
Illona Linthwaite began gathering this collection several years ago, initially for a theatrical performance. Here, in this unique exchange between women of many races, affirming their differences and what they have in common, are more than 150 poems which assert the black abolitionist Sojourner Truth's challenge, "Ain't I a Woman!"
In addition to the poems, there are biographies of the 91 contributors.

Compiled with a specific purpose-to redress the omission of women's work in traditional writing collections-Ain't I A Woman! flows through the varied experiences of childhood, adolescence, love, sex, parenthood, family and work in the poetry of women from around the world. A welcome departure from the sometimes disjointed anthology, this collection is an exciting tool for discovering and celebrating women's contributions to poetry. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by KS