Yellow Pencils

In 1977, Private Gardens, a pioneering anthology of New Zealand women's poetry, appeared in print. Now eleven years later, we have a new thoroughly up-to-date anthology that spans the entire century and reveals how the boundaries of woman as poet have shifted and enlarged. Helping to establish a literary history of New Zealand women, An Anthology of Poetry by New Zealand Women presents a body of work that represents not only the well-known poets--such as Lauris Edmond, Janet Frame, Keri Hulme, Riemke Ensing, Rachel McAlpine, Elizabeth Smither, and Heather Macpherson--but also a large selection of previously-unknown younger poets--including Michelle Leggott, Jenny Bornholdt, and Susan Allpress--who deserve recognition for their diversity, energy, and expansion of ideas. Focusing on the exploration of identity, the business of being a poet, and the constructions and deconstructions of language, these poems raise many essential social, cultural, and political questions concerning the importance of gender in writing and publishing not only in New Zealand but throughout the world. They openly treat many taboo subjects and emotions, including menstruation, sex, pregnancy, rape, incest, anger and hostility, in order to exorcise past stereotypes. Using lovers, wives, mothers, and daughters as subjects in their poetry, the poets re-examine gender relationships and question received identities. Together, their voices reveal the woman poet's changing perception of herself and desire to maintain humanity amongst the dominating anxieties of the late twentieth century.