Index Of Women

(Paperback)

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From a "maestra of invention" (The New York Times) who is at once supremely witty, ferociously smart, and emotionally raw, a new collection of poems about womanhood. From a "maestra of invention" (The New York Times) who is at once supremely witty, ferociously smart, and emotionally raw, a new collection of poems about womanhood Amy Gerstler has won acclaim for sly, sophisticated, and subversive poems that find meaning in unexpected places. Women's voices, from childhood to old age, dominate this new collection of rants, dramatic monologues, confessions and laments. A young girl muses on virginity. An aging opera singer rages against the fact that she must quit drinking. A woman in a supermarket addresses a head of lettuce. The tooth fairy finally speaks out. Both comic and prayer-like, these poems wrestle with mortality, animality, love, gender, and what it is to be human.

Reviews

Praise for Index of Women:

Intimate, funny, poignant, present . . . true to the inner lives of so many women . . . beautifully crafted . . . whats miraculous [] is that this clamor of voices across continents and centuries somehow amounts to the experience of a single mortal: she contains our multitudes. Los Angeles Review of Books

Witty, conversational, ironic, Gerstlers poetry portrays everyday scenes with psychic depth . . . she mixes offbeat humor and dark observations . . . she uses minimal punctuation, which inserts a swirl of energy into the poems. As her impressions flow together, they add a surreal atmosphere, suggestive of art by Toulouse-Lautrecas when his dancers, spectators, and settings enhance one another, contributing to a sense of mystery that [] is compelling. Library Journal

"Gerstlerbrings her customary wit, playfulness, and emotional range to poems that expose the contradictions in ancient and contemporary concepts of femininity. These poemssome dramatic monologues, others more quiet lyricsvividly render their chief thematic concern . . . This wonderfully intelligent and imaginative collection upends conventional gender norms in favor of illustrating womanhood in all its idiosyncrasy, complexity, and fullness." Publishers Weekly

Praise for the poetry of Amy Gerstler:

"[Gerstler's poetry is] extremely rich. But not cluttered and not loud . . . the supernatural, the sexy mundane, the out-of-sight are simply her materials, employed as they might be in a piece of religious art." Eileen Myles, author ofEvolution

"[Gerstler's] poem has me crying in the airport." Ada Limn, author ofBright Dead Things

"[Gerstler has been] one of my favorite poets since I read her bookBitter Angel. Now I have every book of hers on my shelves." Maggie Smith, author ofGood Bones

"[Gerstler's poems are] charming and smart and emotionally targeted . . . clever [and] emotionally resonant . . . Witty, irreverent, self-deprecating--fundamentally kind." Los Angeles Review of Books

Author Bio

Amy Gerstler is a writer of poetry, nonfiction, and journalism who lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of ten previous poetry collections, including Bitter Angel, which won the National Book Critics Circle award, and Crown of Weeds, which won a California Book Award. Her most recent collection, Scattered at Sea (2015), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, and several volumes of Best American Poetry. She teaches in the graduate fine arts department at Art Center, College of Design, in Pasadena, California, and is a member of the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars MFA program at Bennington College in Vermont.