LETTERS TO THE WORLD: POEMS FROM THE WOMPO LISTSERV

My favorite emails come from Wompos. Wompos are members of the Wompo ListServ, an shortened version of women poets. Wompo was founded about ten years ago and i think I joined about six years ago. It is a collection of now over 800 people interested in talking about women’s poetry in serious ways. I’ve learned an immense amount from listening in on these conversations over the years.

About two years ago, Moira Richards and a few other folks thought it would be fascinating to read poems by Wompo list members. Moira began gathering them for a blog. Shortly, this turned into an anthology and Letters to the World was born. A collective effort, the anthology has three primary editors, Moira Richards, Rosemary Starace, and Lesley Wheeler. These fine editors worked with a variety of other committees which were responsible for editing, proofreading, and arranging all of the contracts for the over 300 poems included in the anthology. Each list member could submit one poem of her choosing.

I can’t wait to read the book! In addition to the poems, list members shared brief reflective essays on the Wompo experience. From what I have seen with my page proofs, it looks fascinating. I’m incredibly grateful to all of the editors of the book for their hard work and good spirits in putting this together as well as to Kate Gale, the publisher at Red Hen Press who stood up and took a risk on publishing this book. In addition, all of the women who volunteered on the project - and all of the women (and men) at Wompo who participated, not only in this book, but in my education about poetry.

If you’d like to order the book, which I heartily encourage you to do, you can click on the link below and order it quickly and efficiently with PayPal. When you do, let me know what you think!

Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv

Poetry
Ed. Moira Richards, Rosemary Starace, Lesley Wheeler
$25.00
ISBN: 978-1-59709-099-5
Size: 7x9
Pages: 456
Binding: Tradepaper

Available 2/1/2008