The Essential Muriel Rukeyser by Muriel Rukeyser Published by HarperCollins on June 8, 2021
Genres: Poetry / American / General, Poetry / Subjects & Themes / General, Poetry / Women Authors
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Source: Booksweet
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The definitive edition of selected work from a poet whose influence continues to be widely felt today, introduced by Natasha Trethewey
Engaging closely with the violence, oppression, and injustice that she witnessed in her lifetime, Muriel Rukeyser was one of the seminal poets of the mid-twentieth century. Closely informed by issues relating to equality, social justice, feminism, and Judaism, her impassioned poetry was often seen as a mode of social protest, but it was also heralded for its deep emotional impact; its personal perspective; forthright discussion of the female experience, particularly sex and single parenthood at a time when these topics were largely taboo; and its wide-ranging exploration of genre and form. As Adrienne Rich wrote: “Muriel Rukeyser’s poetry is unequalled in the twentieth-century United States…She pushes us…to enlarge our sense of what poetry is about in the world, and of the place of feelings and memory in politics.”
The Essential Muriel Rukeyser represents the curation of Rukeyser’s most enduring and urgent work, gathered in one volume that spans the many decades of her life and career, and with an introduction from Natasha Trethewey, one of our most important contemporary poets.
In 2023 I had the incredible opportunity to work on the Muriel Rukeyser archive at Eastern Michigan University. Working in an archive and combing through Rukeyser’s original papers and letters, discovering a person through the things she left behind, I got to know Rukeyser. At the end of my internship, I was gifted THE ESSENTIAL MURIEL RUKEYSER, which had many of my favorites and additional new poetry not in the archive. Rukeyser was a “documentary poet”, a “poet of exactly her generation”. One of the letters in her archive describes her as “unique, wild, splendid; out of time with this century”. I find her poetry to be technical but intense, not unlike my other favorite poet, Louise Glück. I recommend her to people of the 21st century, historians, Eastern Michigan University graduates and affiliates, and anyone prone to strong and unpredictable tides of feeling. Also, you can go to the Eastern Michigan Archives and look at her archive for yourself, lovingly cataloged by yours truly.
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