Boomer Girls: Poems by Women from the Baby Boom Generation

by Pamela Gemin (Editor), Joyce Sutphen (Contributor)

Where were you between Betty Crocker and Gloria Steinem? With that question in mind poets Pamela Gemin and Paula Sergi began collecting the poems in Boomer Girls, an anthology of coming-of-age poems written by women born between 1945 and 1964, give or take a few years on either side. The answers to that question fill this volume with the energy, passion, heartbreak, and giddiness of women's lives from childhood to adolescence to middle age. The poems in Boomer Girls are by unknown, emerging, and established writers, women who participated in the second wave of feminism. From Sandra Cisneros' "My Wicked Wicked Ways" to Barbara Crooker's "Nearing Menopause, I Run into Elvis at Shoprite," from Wendy Mnookin's "Polio Summer" to Kyoko Mori's "Barbie Says Math Is Hard," these poems call for us to celebrate (in the words of poet Diane Seuss-Brakeman) "glances, romances, beauty and guilt, regret, remorse, rebates and rejuvenations." Boomer Girls share a common culture, bound by their generation's political history, by pop icons like Barbie—that pedestaled Boomer Girl who's just turned forty—and by the music that's never stopped Janis Joplin, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, the Ronettes, Van Morrison, Patsy Cline, John Lennon. The Boomer poets in this feisty anthology speak with diverse voices and embody a wide range of experiences, yet their generation's universal images—the hula hoops, TV shows, finned automobiles, and other household gods of their youth—unite them in ways both hilarious and tender.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems immediately transported me back to my adolescence and young adulthood. It is a marvelous collection of poetry by a diverse group of women. The poems cover childhood, coming-of-age, and beyond. This is a book I will read over and over.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if you don't think you like poetry, you will like this one (especially if you're a Baby Boomer). I've used several of these poems as writing prompt when giving workshops too. Absollutely love it!

[Angélique (Angel) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars. While there weren't a lot of standout pieces in this anthology for me, I appreciated the cumulative effect of the poems. Together they created a satisfyingly broad reflection on womanhood and a thought-provoking portrait of growing up in the Baby Boom Generation.