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.
- 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
Going Down Fast, 1969
Dance The Eagle To Sleep, 1970
Small Changes, 1973
Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976
The High Cost of Living, 1978
Vida, 1980
Braided Lives, 1982
Fly Away Home, 1985
Gone To Soldiers, 1988
Summer People, 1989
He, She And It (aka Body of Glass), 1991
The Longings of Women, 1994
City of Darkness, City of Light, 1996
Storm Tide, 1998 (with Ira Wood)
Three Women, 1999
The Third Child, 2003
Sex Wars, 2005
Short Stories
The Cost of Lunch, Etc., 2014
Poetry
Breaking Camp, 1968
Hard Loving, 1969
“Barbie Doll“, 1973
4-Telling ( with Emmett Jarrett, Dick Lourie, Robert Hershon), 1971
To Be of Use, 1973
Living in the Open, 1976
The Twelve-Spoked Wheel Flashing, 1978
The Moon is Always Female, 1980
Circles on the Water, Selected Poems, 1982Stone,
Paper, Knife, 1983
My Mother’s Body, 1985
Available Light, 1988
Early Ripening: American Women’s Poetry Now (ed.), 1988; 1993
Mars and her Children, 1992
What are Big Girls Made Of, 1997
Early Grrrl, 1999.
The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems With a Jewish Theme, 1999
Colours Passing Through Us, 2003
The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2010, 2012
Made in Detroit, 2015
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
- Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize, 1986, 1990
- National Endowment for the Arts award, 1978
- Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2004
Writing Tips:
There is a poem that she wrote that displayed her writing tips which were basically never give up on it even if the rest of society is against you and write as much as you can. This is the poem:
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.
Analysis:
- Lots of imagery “etching magic landscapes”
- Last sentence seemed a little out of place
- Overall tone turned darker and darker —-> The fist word of the poem is “morning” which is bright and sunny and the last word of the poem is “night” which is dark so even the words mirrored the tone of the poem
- Free verse poem
- Not as much punctuation as other poems may have
Emulation of Quote:
Nights were shadows creeping their foreboding fingers up my spine. I liked to pretend I was somewhere else, somewhere where the light made the red roses shine and glow. But that never lasted long. So, I looked to the moon and the billions of twinkling fireflies sewn into the blue black ink of the swirling sky and smiled until the night hugged me to sleep and the morning poured onto my face.
Final Thoughts:
After reading her poems I really enjoyed reading the imagery intertwined in her writing so I really appreciated the words of poetry more. I read a bunch of her other poems but my favourite were “Colours Passing Through Us,” and “To Be of Use.”