Choice Words: Writers on Abortion

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With reproductive freedom under unprecedented attack, this powerful literary collection takes back the conversation on abortion.

This landmark literary anthology of poems, stories, and literary essays about abortion, Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, is a powerful collection of timely pieces on the struggle to defend reproductive rights. Twenty years in the making, this book spans continents and centuries; the manuscript includes Audre Lorde, Margaret Atwood, Lucille Clifton, Amy Tan, Gloria Steinem, Ursula Le Guin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Joyce Carol Oates, Gloria Naylor, Dorothy Parker, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anne Sexton, Ntozake Shange, Sholeh Wolpe, Ai, Jean Rhys, Mahogany L. Browne, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Frank O'Hara, Vi Khi Nao, Sharon Olds, Judith Arcana, Alice Walker, Lucille Clifton, Molly Peacock, Carol Muske-Dukes, Mo Yan, Leslie Marmon Silko, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Kathy Acker, Anne Sexton, Langston Hughes, Sharon Doubiago, and numerous other classic and contemporary writers including voices from Canada, France, China, India, Iran, Ireland, Kenya, and Pakistan.

Reviews

This book is a treasure, a gift, and a long-overdue shining of light in the most secret, sometimes painful, and often defiant lives of women. I am grateful that this anthology finally exists.Elizabeth Gilbert, author,Eat, Pray, Love "This is a captivating collection, organized and curated as only Annie Finch can do. It is a book I will cherish for years to come."Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author,Balm "A powerful collection of poems, fiction, and essays on the reality of abortion. . . Finch (Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters, 2015, etc.) has drawn together writers across time (from the 16th century to the present), place, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and culture who offer stark, often wrenching revelations. . . Eloquent contributions to the literature on a deeply contested issue.Kirkus, starred review "With reproductive rights under relentless assault, never has a book been more needed. Annie Finch has spanned five centuries and six continents to assemble writers who articulate a commonality of experience in every situation and emotion. Conceived and compiled with scrupulous scholarship, and with an illuminating introduction by Katha Pollitt, Choice Words will become a classic of both feminism and literature."Robin Morgan, activist, author, host of Women's Media Center Live "The poems, essays, and stories inChoice Wordsprove that womens bodies cannot be nationalized. Gloria Steinem "Choice Wordsis an important contribution to our movement for abortion access. Its time to read what literary voices have been saying about abortion. As we read their voices and stories, we have more nuanced context as we navigate our ownlives."Yamani Hernandez, Executive Director, National Network of Abortion Funds "Silence, as much as anything, is why abortion's such an easy target in America. Stories save lives. We need women to say, shamelessly, I had an abortion. I'm not sorry. I'm not afraid. This anthology is a valuable contribution to this work."Molly Crabapple, author,Drawing Blood "Every kind of abortion you can imagine is represented here: abortions legal and illegal, safe and dangerous and fatal; abortions despite the wishes of others and abortions at the behestthe compulsionof others; abortion as a claiming of self and abortion as an abnegation of self. There is abortion as tragedy, and also abortion as an occasion for wry comedy."Katha Pollitt, author,Pro

Author Bio

Annie Finch, editor of Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, is an award-winning feminist poet, writer, and performer. Her eighteen books include Spells: New and Selected Poems, and Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams, a ritual poem on abortion which received the Sarasvati Award. Annie holds a BA from Yale and a Ph.D from Stanford. Based in Washington, DC, she travels to teach and to perform her work. More at anniefinch.com.