My Life, My Body

by Marge Piercy

Overview

In a candid and intimate new collection of essays, poems, memoirs, reviews, rants, and railleries, Piercy discusses her own development as a working-class feminist, the highs and lows of TV culture, the ego-dances of a writer’s life, the homeless and the housewife, Allen Ginsberg and Marilyn Monroe, feminist utopias (and why she doesn’t live in one), why fiction isn’t physics; and of course, fame, sex, and money, not necessarily in that order. The short essays, poems, and personal memoirs intermingle like shards of glass that shine, reflect—and cut. Always personal yet always political, Piercy’s work is drawn from a deep well of feminist and political activism.

Also featured is our Outspoken Interview, in which the author lays out her personal rules for living on Cape Cod, finding your poetic voice, and making friends in Cuba.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629631059
Publisher:	PM Press
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Series:	Outspoken Authors , #15
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Marge Piercy is the author of seventeen novels, including the national bestsellers Gone to Soldiers, Braided Lives, and Woman on the Edge of Time, seventeen volumes of poetry, and a critically acclaimed memoir, Sleeping with Cats. Born in center-city Detroit, educated at the University of Michigan, the recipient of four honorary doctorates, she has been a key player in many of the major progressive political battles of our time.

Table of Contents

A Dissatisfaction without a Name 1

The More We See the Less We Know 9

Headline: Lawmaker destroys shopping carts 13

Gentrification and Its Discontents 15

What they call acts of god 23

Statement on Censorship for the Pennsylvania Review 25

Fame, Fortune, and Other Tawdry Illusions 29

Housewives without Houses 41

The hows; there is no why 45

"Living off the Grid" Outspoken Interview with Marge Piercy 47

Touched by Ginsberg at a (Relatively) Tender Age 61

Tabula Rasa with Boobs 67

Nice words for ugly acts 73

Why Speculate on the Future? 75

My Life, My Body 85

Behind the war on women 95

Never Catch a Break 97

Port Huron Conference Statement 101

Who has little, let them have less 111

Bibliography 113

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/07/2015
This pithy collection of essays and poems condenses Piercy's sharp wit and ruthless clarity into a crystalline set of provocations brimming with earthy good sense, social awareness, and "the dignity of necessary work." Piercy (Made in Detroit) wields the no-nonsense approach of the working writer who has earned her place through many trials and can speak with an authority that peels away mental flab and pierces complacency. She demands art and literature that will "change consciousness a tiny bit at a time." Her prose is lean, efficient, and full of muscle, tearing through the tissue of illusion around gentrification, censorship, fame, and Marilyn Monroe, while the counterpoised poetry, unabashedly and urgently political, lobs cannonballs from the side of the disenfranchised and invisible. A self-proclaimed "socialist-anarchist-feminist," Piercy delivers a precise and devastating critique of political showmanship, corporate greed, economic insecurity, and the constant debate over ownership of and access to women's bodies. Rife with a passionate sense of justice and dry, direct humor, this slim, essential volume ignites the mind and validates the function of activist art. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Marge Piercy is not just an author, she’s a cultural touchstone. Few writers in modern memory have sustained her passion, and skill, for creating stories of consequence.”
—Boston Globe

“As always, Piercy writes with high intelligence, love for the world, ethical passion and innate feminism.”
—Adrienne Rich

“One of the most important poets of our time.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Piercy’s writing is as passionate, lucid, insightful, and thoughtfully alive as ever.”
—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher