Marge Piercy – tina – baltering soul

by: Tina, Cindy, Simran, Camdyn

biography

She was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1936.- Her working-class family was hit hard during the Great Depression.
She was the first in her family to attend college. She had won a scholarship to the University of Michigan.
In the 1960’s, Marge Piercy was an organizer in political movements.- The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)- The movement against the war in Vietnam
Marge Piercy was extremely involved with acts of feminism, Marxism, and environmental thought.- These viewpoints affected her writings. Her novels addressed social concerns with feminist viewpoints.
She has published close to 20 poetry books and novels. As well, she has written plays, non-fiction, a memoir.
Occasionally, she works as a poetry editor, and partnered with Tikkun Magazine.
In 1971, Marge Piercy moved to Cape Cod with her husband. Her and her husband created the company Leapfrog Press.
Marge Piercy credits her mother for making her a poet.- Her mother, described as an emotional, imaginative woman, encouraged her daughter to read daily.- Her mother, described as an emotional, imaginative woman, encouraged her daughter to read daily.
She wanted Marge to observe sharply and remember whatever she observed.
As she grew older and increasingly independent, Marge didn’t fit the image that women were supposed to have.- By being a divorcee at 23, poor, and working part-time, she was deemed a failure by society.
Her values, views, and image affected her work as an author greatly. She failed to publish her novels for many years.
Throughout this difficult period, Marge felt as if she was invisible.

writing pieces

novels

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Going Down Fast, 1969
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Dance The Eagle To Sleep, 1970
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Small Changes, 1973
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Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976
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The High Cost of Living, 1978
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Vida, 1980
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Braided Lives, 1982
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Fly Away Home, 1985
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Gone To Soldiers, 1988
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Summer People, 1989
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He, She And It (aka Body of Glass), 1991

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The Longings of Women, 1994
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City of Darkness, City of Light, 1996
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Storm Tide, 1998 (with Ira Wood)
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Three Women, 1999
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The Third Child, 2003
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Sex Wars, 2005
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short stories

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The Cost of Lunch, Etc., 2014
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poetry

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Breaking Camp, 1968
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Hard Loving, 1969
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Barbie Doll, 1973
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4-Telling ( with Emmett Jarrett, Dick Lourie, Robert Hershon), 1971

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To Be of Use, 1973
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Living in the Open, 1976
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The Twelve-Spoked Wheel Flashing, 1978
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The Moon is Always Female, 1980
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Circles on the Water, Selected Poems, 1982

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Stone, Paper, Knife, 1983
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My Mother's Body, 1985
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Available Light, 1988
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Early Ripening: American Women's Poetry Now (ed.), 1988; 1993

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Mars and her Children, 1992
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What are Big Girls Made Of, 1997
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Early Grrrl, 1999.
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The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems With a Jewish Theme, 1999

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Colours Passing Through Us, 2003
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The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2010, 2012

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Made in Detroit, 2015
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https://www.poemhunter.com/marge-piercy/poems/

awards

Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, 1993 (He, She and It)

Bradley Award, New England Poetry Club, 1992

Brit ha-Dorot Award, Shalom Center, 1992

May Sarton Award, New England Poetry Club, 1991

Golden Rose Poetry Prize, New England Poetry Club, 1990

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Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize, 1986, 1990
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National Endowment for the Arts award, 1978

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2004

writing tips

For the Young Who Want To by Marge Piercy

Talent is what they say
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.

Work is what you have done
after the play is produced
and the audience claps.
Before that friends keep asking
when you are planning to go
out and get a job.

Genius is what they know you
had after the third volume
of remarkable poems. Earlier
they accuse you of withdrawing,
ask why you don’t have a baby,
call you a bum.

The reason people want M.F.A.’s,
take workshops with fancy names
when all you can really
learn is a few techniques,
typing instructions and some-
body else’s mannerisms

is that every artist lacks
a license to hang on the wall
like your optician, your vet
proving you may be a clumsy sadist
whose fillings fall into the stew
but you’re certified a dentist.

The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.

writing styles

In her writing, she deals with feminism and deals with social concerns through her writing. She also speaks grandly about body image. In her poem “Barbie Doll” she has a strong theme of feminism. She also deals with the issue about the ‘ideal’ female body type. Majority of her poems are written in free verse (verse having irregular meter, or rhythm that is not metrical), and her poems are often parable (short narratives with a moral).

quote

Mornings were chilly, frost on windows
etching magic landscapes. I liked
to stand over the hot air registers
the warmth blowing up my skirts.
But the basement scared me at night.

emulation

It was cold that afternoon, my brother and I were the only ones in the house. Our parents left for a business trip for a few day. They left a lot recently. I was around the age of six when our furnace broke. My brother was only 17; he didn’t know what to do. He bundled me up and we made our way to a store, it was only a block away. I don’t know if taking a child out in -30 degree weather was smart, but it was done. I don’t remember much, I just remember the seemingly long journey there, though the snowbanks and not being able to see where to place one foot in front of the other. But I do remember sitting in front of a newly bought portable heater battery with my feet pressed up against it.

final thoughts

Marge Piercy was introduced to me by my teacher. That very night I searched and found a whole website with most if not all of her poems, which I ended up reading all of. She has inspired me to be open and more knowledgeable about free verse poetry. Poetry that doesn’t have rhythm but has a lot of meaning behind it. To take your troubles and to make them creative.