Votes for Women: Cover of Poet Lore
The newest issue of Poet Lore features women in 1912 on a march in Manhattan for women’s voting rights. Poet Lore chose this as “an image that reminds us how slowly notions of equality have evolved, even in America. For another eight years, half of this nation’s adults would have no voice in a government purporting to be of and by and for the people. A century later, women’s issues that have drawn broad support in our time are again under fire—reproductive choice and pay equity among them. ‘Who has a voice in what?’ is a question that continues to challenge us, despite growing public approval for expanding freedoms rather than curtailing them.”
At the time of the march, Poet Lore was already well established (it started in 1889), created by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke. Current Editors Jody Bolz and E. Ethelbert Miller say that Porter and Clarke viewed literature as a form of action, as they do now. “A poet’s authority proves itself within the context of the poem, or it does not prove itself at all,” they write.
Contributors to this issue include José Angel Araguz, Javy Awan, David Bart, Samiya Bashir, Mark Belair, Jocko Benoit, Robert Brickhouse, Jennifer Case, Aimee R. Cervenka, Joanna Chen, Marilyn Chin, Ter Ellen Cross, Robin Davidson, Kwame Dawes, Sally L. Derringer, Julie Dunlop, Linda Dyer, David H. Ebenbach, Clara C. Fang, Marta Ferguson, Gary Fincke, Shelley Girdner, Tony Gloeggler, Sid Gold, Jeffrey Harrison, Lowell Jaeger, Andrew Jamison, Honorée F. Jeffers, Brandon Krieg, Gerry LaFemina, Gary Lark, Gardner McFall, Michael Milburn, Elizabeth Miranda, Carol Moldaw, Henry J. Morro, Kurt Olsson, Derek N. Otsuji, Marge Piercy, Christine Poreba, Zara Raab, Kristin Robertson, Joseph Ross, David Salner, Amy Schulz, Brittney Scott, Laurie Sewall, William Snyder Jr., Mark Sullivan, Kate Sweeney, Jason Tandon, Mark Wagenaar, Lillo Way, Julia Wendell, Mike White, and Debra Wierenga.
