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A SPECIAL SELECTION OF POEMS FOR WOMEN BY THE GREAT WOMEN POETS, INCLUDING EMILY DICKINSON, EMILY BRONT , JANE AUSTEN, ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, GERTRUDE STEIN, H.D. AND MANY MORE.

THE ANTHOLOGY

As I put together this anthology, three mantras resounded in my head: My sisters' words are my words. My sisters' words are my words, so I must do them justice. My sisters' words are my words, so I must choose the words that speak closest to my beliefs.

I share this mantra with you because I believe it is important to understand that I do not intend for this book to reflect a historical reading or academic inquiry of the history of the female, antifeminism, and/or suffragist culture. There are plenty of fine scholars who have already done the research, specified research, on individual poets and years and social constructs that circle back to the power of the female: I encourage you to do that reading. Rather, this is a book designed by a poet, who is also a woman, with the intention of creating a protected space for the dynamic, lyrical, and heart-wrenching female voices of the past to mingle together.

For many, womanhood is an inescapable myth, a lifetime of predetermined emotions and values and categories in which many do not fit: girlhood, sisterhood, motherhood. These poems speak to each other in that they fill the others' grooves; the way they move on the page and in the mouth echoes the sentiments of the past to pave the sounds of the future. The individual history of each one of these women is made possible because of the ones who came prior, thus they are intertwined. Some of these women, like Gertrude Stein, Emily Dickinson, or H.D. are still celebrated in literary circles today. Others like Lady Kasa or Helen Gray Cone have hid in the shadows: this is their place to shine. In a way, this anthology was created so that these exquisite and already intertwined deserving female poets finally had a safe haven. In a way, I set off to create a sisterhood.

Even though each poem in this anthology is a voice from the past, each one has something important to say about the essence of being a woman today. Listen to these poets as they whisper their most private thoughts and feelings in your ear and marvel at how the bond of sisterhood transcends the passage of time.

Abriana Jett
Brooklyn, New York
2014

THE POETS

Emily Dickinson
Emily Bront
Jane Austen
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Gertrude Stein
H.D.
Christina Rossetti
Anne Bradstreet
Sappho
Mina Loy
Amy Lowell
Katherine Phillips
Isabella Whitney
Mary Darby Robinson
Sara Teasdale
Emma Lazarus
Phillis Wheatley
Anne Kingsmill Finch
Sumangalamata
Louise Labe
Ann Taylor
Lady Mary Chudleigh
Lucy Terry Prince
Lady Kasa
Ellen Wheeler Wilcox
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Helen Gray Cone
Li Qingzhao
Aphra Behn
Felicia Dorothea Hemans

THE AUTHOR

Abriana Jett is an internationally published poet, essayist, and educator. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals, including the Dr. T. J. Eckleburg Review, The Iron Horse Literary Review, The American Literary Review, and The Moth. She teaches at St. Johns's University and the City University of New York, writes a regular column for Stay Thirsty Magazine that focuses on emerging poets and is the editor of the recently published book, The Best Emerging Poets of 2013, that debuted on Amazon as the #3 Best Seller in Poetry Anthologies. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.