Lizzie Borden in Love: Poems in Women's Voices

by Julianna Baggott, Jon Tribble (Editor)

Women’s voices offering an intimate view into women’s lives Lizzie Borden in Love , a collection of poems by national bestselling author Julianna Baggott, offers poignant commentary in the voices of women as varied as Mary Todd Lincoln and Monica Lewinsky. The poems often focus on a particular moment in Katherine Hepburn discovers the dead body of her brother in an attic, or painter Mary Cassatt mourns the failure of her eyesight. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes ecstatic, the poems in this collection never fail the trust of the subjects of their intimate portrayals

Genres: Poetry, Feminism

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author Julianna Baggott has published more than twenty books under her own name as well as pen names Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode. Her recent novel, Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (2015). Her novel Pure, the first of a trilogy, was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (2012) and won an ALA Alex Award. Her work has been optioned by Fox2000, Nickelodeon/Paramount, and Anonymous Content and she currently has work in development at Netflix with Shawn Levy attached to direct, Paramount with Jessica Biel attached, Disney+, Lionsgate, and Warner Brothers, to name a few. For more on her film and TV work, click here. There are over one hundred foreign editions of Julianna’s novels published or forthcoming overseas. Baggott’s work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Modern Love column, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The International Herald Tribune, Glamour, Real Simple, Best Creative Nonfiction, Best American Poetry, and has been read on NPR’s Here and Now, Talk of the Nation, and All Things Considered. Her essays, stories, and poems are highly anthologized.

Baggott began publishing short stories when she was twenty-two and sold her first novel while still in her twenties. After receiving her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she published her first novel, the national bestseller Girl Talk. It was quickly followed by The Boston Globe bestseller, The Miss America Family, and then The Boston Herald Book Club selection, The Madam, an historical novel based on the life of her grandmother. She co-wrote Which Brings Me to You with Steve Almond, A Best Book of 2006 (Kirkus Reviews); it has been optioned by Anonymous Content, and currently by BCDF, with a screenplay penned by playwright Keith Bunin.

Her Bridget Asher novels, published by Bantam Dell at Random House, include All of Us and Everything, listed in “Best New Books” in People magazine (2015), The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, The Pretend Wife, and My Husband’s Sweethearts.

Although the bulk of her work is for adults, she has published award-winning novels for younger readers under the pen name N.E. Bode as well as her own name. Her seven novels for younger readers include, most notably, The Anybodies trilogy, which was a People Magazine summer reading pick alongside David Sedaris and Bill Clinton, a Washington Post Book of the Week, a Girl’s Life Top Ten, a Booksense selection, and was in development at Nickelodeon/Paramount. Other titles include The Slippery Map, The Ever Breath, and the prequel to Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, a movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Jason Bateman. For two years, Bode was a recurring personality on XM Sirius Radio. Julianna’s Boston Red Sox novel The Prince of Fenway Park (HarperCollins) was on the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards List and The Massachusetts Children’s Book Award for 2011-2012.

Baggott also has an acclaimed career as a poet, having published four collections of poetry – Instructions: Abject & Fuming, This Country of Mothers, Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees, and Lizzie Borden in Love. Her poems have appeared in some of the most venerable literary publications in the country, including Poetry, The American Poetry Review, and Best American Poetry (2001, 2011, and 2012).

She is an associate professor at Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts where she teaches screenwriting. From 2013-2017, she held the William H.P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross. In 2006, Baggott and her husband, David Scott, co-founded the nonprofit organization Kids in Need – Books in Deed which focuses on literacy and getting free books into the hands of underprivileged children in the state of Florida. David Scott is also her creative and business partner. They have four children. Her oldest daughte

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good poetry book on historical women in society. Personal favorites were "Helen Keller Dying In Her Sleep", "Ethel Waters' Mother, Louise - Raped At Twelve - Cannot Listen To Her Daughter Sing 'His Eye Is On The Sparrow', 'Monica Lewinsky Thinks Of Bill Clinton While Standing Naked In Front Of A Hotel Mirror', and more. The book tells the stories of several women from Camille Claudel to Sylvia Plath, which why it was so interesting. I can honestly say I've never read anything like this... I'm a huge fan of historical fiction, but never in my life have I read historical fiction in the form of poetry? I don't even really know if you can call this book historical fiction, but I don't really know where else to place it in the span of things??

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although four stars is probably too many, I need to give it four stars. There is just so much I like about the individual poems and about certain poems as a whole. Should probably get three stars, but I'm giving four based on "potential" or something like that. I ultimately just WANT to like this book more than I do--she just doesn't trust her readers enough for me to love it...too expository, contrived in order to give us historical context in a lyric poem. Is that even possible in a lyric poem?

[Shaindel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite poetry collections, ever! Baggott explores the lives of women throughout history, many of whom we haven't thought of--"wives" of "important men" and writes poems expressing their desires, fears, and frustrations. A must-read for poets, feminists, and historians.

A beautiful book!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaah-stonishing. The charming photo on the cover of bathing beauties turning themselves into art is perfect for this book, in which a kaleidoscope of moments from women's lives form a pattern of feminine experience. I loved some, was cold to others, but isn't that how it is with other minds? Baggot always seems to write where my imagination goes naturally, and the scenes flashing by in these poems - little stories, really - remind me of those backseat days when scenery would flicker by and I'd wonder who lived there and what that person was thinking, the one in the cluster of statues who gazed up at the hero.

I think the one I loved best was the Mule-faced woman, but for some reason Camile Claudel in the lake sticks with me too. This is intriguing, ladies. Give it a whirl.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little loathe to vote on this book, because before my vote, there were five votes for five stars, four votes for four stars, three for three, two for two, and one for one. I was torn between 3 and 4 stars, and went for three because it destroyed the symmetry a little less. Plus I was leaning that way already. And I just noticed that this is book number 333 on my "read" list. Okay, three stars it is. But seriously, it is somewhere between three and four on my scale, if anyone cares.

[Milford Public Library Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelist and children's author Baggott has compiled a highly accessible collection of modern poetry.
Told from the point of view of well-known wives, mothers and lovers, Baggott chronicles incidents in the lives of: two of Norman Rockwell's wives (Irene & Mary), Mary Todd Lincoln, Marie Pasteur, Helen Keller, Marie Curie, Sylvia Plath, Monica Lewinsky, Rodin's wife & mistress (Rose Beuret & Camille Claudel, respectively), and of course, the title character herself, Lizzie Borden.

[Angie Orlando · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love poems in voices, and this book does not disappoint. The author takes on the voice of famous worm in history, especially those involved in scandals. Learn what the women have to say: Lizzie Borden, Marie Currie, Helen KEller, Katharine Hepburn, Mary Rockwell, Sylvia Plath and more. There's death, darkness, madness and the desires of ow women.

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant. Of all that I have read by Julianna Baggott, this has inspired me most.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. I read it from cover to cover and look forward to reading it again.

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant and lovely.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometime in circa 2016, I read a thinkpiece by Ta-Nehisi Coates about the poem in this collection on Monica Lewinsky. I remember liking his insights and the poem itself, and ever since I've wanted to read this book. After all, I've also been fascinated by Lizzie Borden for years, so I knew I'd like it.

I didn't.

Don't get me wrong, this collection has 4 or 5 good poems in it, but the rest all fell flat for me. I guess I was expecting it to be a badass collection of historical women and their self-empowerment, but... it's not really. It's like—okay, so the reason Moby Dick is so tedious to read is that Melville did an insane amount of research for it, and he decided to spend like 70% of the novel on just flexing about his knowledge of whaling vessels that the 30% of actual plot became insufferable to read. And Julianna Baggott's poetry here feels much the same way: there is so much focus on information dumps about each woman's lives that they're less focused on poetic substance than they are on "look how much I know about these famous historical women".

As for the specific poems that drew me to this book in the first place: the Lizzie Borden pieces felt especially weak to me since there are a LOT of legitimate feminist takes to write about, but Baggott spends more on speculation and unfounded rumors about Borden (oooh she might've been a closet lesbian, sshhhh the jury doesn't know how cruel her father is!!!) than actually quantifiable fempowerment, such as men's lack of knowledge about menstruation playing a crucial role in the trial or how societal oppression of wealthy women was a strong motive. Additionally, having now reread the Lewinsky poem all these years later, I can't help but feel uncomfortable about someone writing a poem from the POV of an actual living person. I'm reminded of an open mic I went to in 2015 where a white guy read a poem from the perspective of a Muslim refugee in America. No matter how well intentioned, it was disgusting to hear. It's one thing to write your own empathic thoughts on a marginalized person or group, and an entirely different thing to think you can possibly understand the struggle.

[Jennifer Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish half-stars were possible, because I'd like to have given this a 3.5. I love the idea of a series of persona poems in women's voices ranging from Monica Lewinsky to Lizzie Borden with a series of Camille Claudel poems thrown in for good measure. Baggott does a nice job of giving each persona her own voice vocabulary (Camille Claudel uses different words to describe things than Mary Cassatt does, and Mary Rockwell's voice does sound different from that of Helen Keller) and further uses titles to good effect to establish the persona for the reader. The poems are rich with sound and Baggott uses a great deal of rhyme and repeating sounds. For all of that it rates higher than a three; a few of the poems are a bit heavy-handed in their delivery of the message of the way women's voices are silences ("Lizzie Borden Addresses Her Jury of Men," ""Mary Rockwell, 1950,"and "After a Trip to the Dentist with Sister Saint Hildefonse, Camille Claudel Returns to the Asylum" for example) and for that I couldn't quite give it four stars.

But I really did enjoy this collection and appreciated the many (22 by my count) different personae Baggott created. Really it should be a 3.5.

Basically for poetry collections a five star ranking system is too narrow - some books (like Slow Lightning or Incarnadine) are so extraordinary that they take the five out of the running for all other books, leaving us with only four stars to play around with.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the persona poem interests you, then this is the book to read. I adored these poems, every last one of them. They were all so delicate, empathetic, and surprising. My favorite surprise was the poem in the voice of Monica Lewinsky. Brilliant!

[Qiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing really striking about this book for me. Just some poems that happen to have met up in a book and got published. Lucky her.

[Liz Derrington]

Ta-Nehisi Coates recently mentioned this on his blog, and I'm intrigued, though perhaps not entirely sold...

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting take on poetry of women's history. Just not my bag baby I guess.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better potential than execution, perhaps, but I can love it for the idea alone. Here is a book containing a poem in which Margaret Sanger addresses Ida Craddock.