New Issue of Womb Poetry: Skeins and Schisms

featuring work by:

Dorothea Lasky
Helen White
Michele Burnett
Julie Strand
Bonnie Emerick
Kristine Ong Muslim
Melinda Wilson
Tara Betts
Susan Slaviero
Jessica Smith
Amanda Ackerman
Megan Kaminski
Nicole Cartwright Denison
Elisa McCool
T.A. Noonan
Maureen Alsop
Constance Merritt
Talia Reed
Tara McDaniel
Jessica Bozek
Juliet Cook

Check it out!

still thinking about numbers trouble

I suppose before I even engage in a longer discussion about gender, I ought to clarify my take on the whole "attention to gender = essentialism" debate. As an editor of both a journal and press that are committed to publishing work by writers who "self-identify" as women, I see "woman" as a political category. By choosing to publish work by women, I am not making an argument that there is a metaphysical difference between women and men. I do not think that there are only two sexes (male and female), two genders (women and men), or two ways to write (masculine and feminine). I do not think that there are essential differences between men and women or the writing they produce. I do, however, recognize processes and transactions and conversations in which systematic sexism and racism persist. In these instances, it is important to recognize gender and race as political categories. In fact, this recognition is a key aspect of intervention, community building, and progressive politics. Which is to say that is remains politically necessary for women to identify as women in order to combat systems from which they are excluded or oppressed as women.

Women of the World Wide Poetry Web

Didi Menendez is asking questions. I answered some.

NEW ISSUE OF WOMB

WOMB POETRY :: EQUINOX ISSUE

http://www.wombpoetry.com

featuring work by:

Kelli Russell Agodon
Nicole Cooley
Kate Greenstreet
Luisa A. Igloria
Eve Rifkah
Jennifer Karmin + vispo
Nicki Hastie
Raina León
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Arlene Biala
Nava Fader
C Mehrl Bennett
Laura Goldstein
Jill Alexander Essbaum
Kristen Orser
Pearl Pirie
Kathryn Douglas
Angela Veronica Wong
Juliet Cook
Lillian Baker Kennedy

transitions

WOMB:

I am working on the late sumer/equinox issue of WOMB. I hope to have galleys ready by the end of the weekend.

Hex Presse:

I hope to publish Michalle Gould's amazing chapbook Resurrection Party by the end of the month.

More cleromancies should be available at the Hex Presse Etsy store soon. There should be more puzzles too. I am also making poetry lockets and compacts. And poetry necklaces. And poetry snow globes. And comfort boxes.

Fun Stuff

So far I've gotten some great submissions for the summer issue of WOMB.

I've posted a list of things that are forthcoming from Hex Presse here.

I've also found Behind the Lines: Poetry and Peacemaking

~*~Coming Soon from Hex Presse~*~

******Cleromancy Poetry Game******

******six word dice for poetry, divination, and play******

*Six dice; each side of each die has a different word (for a total of 36 words)
*Words for cleromancy #1 are sourced from the poetry of Emily Dickinson
*Each die comes from a different poem.
*Cleromancy #1 comes from poems #339 ("I tend my flowers for thee--"), #479 ("She dealt her pretty words like Blades-- "), #1775 ("The earth has many keys."), #500 ("Within my Garden, rides a Bird"), #311 ("It sifts from Leaden Sieves--"), and #632 ("The Brain -- is wider than the Sky --").
*Comes in a Hexagon shaped box
*Dice and box are pyrographed and inked by hand
*Roll the dice to make poems or divinations


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Games will be available through the Hex Presse Etsy shop soon!
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There will be MORE cleromancy poetry games from Hex Presse. Each game will be sourced from "woman-authored texts"** and contemporary poets will be invited to "curate" the dice. Cleromancy #2 and #3 are curated by Jessica Smith and sourced from the work of Christina Rossetti.
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Cleromancy is a form of divination using sortilege, casting lots or casting bones in which an outcome is determined by random means, such as the rolling of a dice.

Words on dice can be used to make make poems. Here are some examples of visual poems made with word dice.

**open to interpretation :)

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x-posted to WOMB blog and Hex Presse blog

6 x 6

something fun and special coming your way June 6. Stay tuned.

Hex Presse

the print companion to WOMB poetry!
























Look for our first chapbook -- Resurrection Party by Michalle Gould -- in August!

April Update

WOMB will be opening for submissions soon. We're currently working on a "mini" summer issue slated to come out in August. At that time, we'll also be publishing our first print chap through our sister project HexPresse. Also, please check out our friend Little Red Leaves. This new, smokin' hot online journal will be launching on Mayday (May 1st). Details about that are coming soon.

womb as a title for a publication, updated

Some people seem to think that "womb" is a pretty provocative/controversial title for a publication. I'd like to unpack why that is. But first I'd just like to say this:

-I like the word "womb," it's etymology, and the letters w-o-m-b and their suggested visual echoes: b-o-m-b (a buzzing or booming sound), c-o-m-b (a toothed object), t-o-m-b (to swell). I have always liked the "om" combination. I also have an intense fondness for words containing "ov." And I like almost all the words used to describe female and flower anatomy. They are tasty, tangy words. I also like the word "speculum." And "hem." And "hone." And "bone." And "elixir." But I digress.

- wombs -- the body parts -- are not required for publication in WOMB.

- WOMB publishes the work of people who SELF-identify as women.

- WOMB publishes the work of multiple genders.

- WOMB is feminist.

- WOMB is for everybody.

I think one of the reasons some people are put off by the name has to do with the body, and the way certain parts/areas of the body can become sites of political discourse and how this is enacted through language. The idea of the anatomical womb and it's function as a reproductive organ is frequently used as way for others to claim possession of/power over women's bodies. In case it isn't obvious, I think this is really gross.

I think another reason why some people are made uncomfortable by the name has to do with the way WOMB seems more sincere than say, words like "pussy" or "cunt." "Pussy" and "cunt" seem more ironic and distanced...and in some ways, this irony/distance is what makes many people, especially men, more comfortable. In case it isn't obvious, I think it is okay to make people feel uncomfortable. Especially if the discomfort reveals some sort of occult privilege.

It also seems that some people make the assumption that the title WOMB is meant to be a sort of synecdoche. That the journal is a sort of "all wombs on deck" call to poets. Or else that the title is meant to glorify fecundity/fertility. Both of these assumptions tend toward an interpretation of the title as a means of being divisive. Additionally, these assumptions also align with a tendency to value women because they possess wombs, or -- even worse -- to value the womb more than the woman. In case it isn't obvious, I think these tendencies are really, really gross. It is, in fact, a desire to squash those tendencies that compel me to use words like "womb" and "ovary" and "fallopian tubes."

I know that not everyone will like the title/name of every publication. And I know language will always be the site of conflict. I like poetry because it is a radical use of language. And yes, I do think "WOMB" is a radical name for a publication.

Colloquially, it is not unusual to hear someone say that so-and-so has "balls." It also isn't unusual for people to call things "seminal," or to call a person "cocky," or to say that someone got "shafted" or is a "tool." And did you know that the word "pencil" comes from the diminutive for penis? Yes, next time you use a pencil you can think "little penis." Or "tail," which is where the word for penis comes from.

The word womb comes from the word for belly.

And check this:

MATRIX:

1373, from O.Fr. matrice, from L. matrix (gen. matricis) "pregnant animal," in L.L. "womb," also "source, origin," from mater (gen. matris) "mother." Sense of "place or medium where something is developed" is first recorded 1555; sense of "embedding or enclosing mass" first recorded 1641. Logical sense of "array of possible combinations of truth-values" is attested from 1914.

More here.

Other things: Womb Chair from Design Within Reach & knit a womb. Also this.

WOMB POETRY Volume One is live. Check it out!

~*~Womb Poetry Vol.1 : Hives & Covens~*~

Volume One
dedicated in memory to kari edwards

* t h r u m *

: kari edwards : Eileen Tabios : Barbara Jane Reyes : Elizabeth Treadwell : Ann Bogle : : Alison Cimino :Susan B.A. Somers-Willett : Amy King : Kristy Bowen : Julie Choffel : : J.B. Rowell : Ebony Golden : Jenna Cardinale : Juliet Cook : Susan Morrison-Kilfoyle : : Holaday Mason : Toti O'Brien : Jessica Schneider : Karen McBurney : Sunnylyn Thibodeaux : : Sarah Mangold : Meagan Evans : Jennifer Bartlett : Marcia Arrieta : Michele Miller : : Priscilla Atkins : Anne Elezebeth Pluto : Marie Buck : Michalle Gould : Anne Heide : : Susan Meyers : Melissa Eleftherion : Susan Settlemyre Williams : J. Elizabeth Clark :

* s p a r k l e *

: Danielle Pafunda : Kathryn Miller : Julia Drescher : k. lorraine graham : Karen McBurney : : Michelle Caplan : Marcia Arrieta : Ashley Smith : Annette Sugden : Christine Bruness :

* c h i m e *


: a chapbook by Julia Drescher :

Womb Poetry Volume 1: Hives & Covens

goes live January 15!

kari edwards

Sad news. Poet, artist, and gender activist kari edwards died of heart failure on saturday. kari was only 52.

the first issue of womb is dedicated to kari edwards. kari was the first person to send poems for the journal. the poems that appear in womb are from her book having been blue for charity.

one cannot read kari's work without being changed by it. this is very great loss. I never met kari, but I consider hir one of my heroes. I wish all who knew and loved hir comfort.

womb website

wombpoetry.com

Womb Poetry : Volume One : Hives & Covens

goes live January 2007. Visit our construction site.