What do you think?
Rate this book
Personal Effects
Book by Marilyn Zuckerman, Robin Becker, and Helena Minton.
86 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1976
3 people want to read
About the author
Robin Becker
29 books14 followersRobin Becker (born 1951) is an American poet, critic, feminist, and professor.
Becker earned a BA and MA at Boston University. She taught for many years at the MIT before returning to Pennsylvania in 1994, where she is Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women's Studies at Penn State.
Becker is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Tiger Heron and Domain of Perfect Affection. Her All American Girl won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry. In 2000 she was honored with Penn State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and she served as Penn State Laureate in 2010-11. Other honours include fellowships from The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies of the City University of New York, The William Steeple Davis Foundation, the Mary Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Becker’s interest in narrative springs from her family background, including a childhood spent listening to her grandmother’s stories, learning from her the nuances of storytelling and her family’s history in Ukraine. Becker was also greatly influenced by the women writers whose poetry was available in the 1970s, including Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, and Susan Griffin. Poet Stephen Dunn regards Becker as achieving “what may be one of the early twenty first century’s most difficult accomplishments—to write a credible poetry of affirmation. In the doing, she doesn’t pretty up the world. Rather, she finds language that embraces our dualities, our many-selved presences, regularly demonstrating her kind of perfect affection.”
Becker earned a BA and MA at Boston University. She taught for many years at the MIT before returning to Pennsylvania in 1994, where she is Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women's Studies at Penn State.
Becker is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Tiger Heron and Domain of Perfect Affection. Her All American Girl won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry. In 2000 she was honored with Penn State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and she served as Penn State Laureate in 2010-11. Other honours include fellowships from The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies of the City University of New York, The William Steeple Davis Foundation, the Mary Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Becker’s interest in narrative springs from her family background, including a childhood spent listening to her grandmother’s stories, learning from her the nuances of storytelling and her family’s history in Ukraine. Becker was also greatly influenced by the women writers whose poetry was available in the 1970s, including Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, and Susan Griffin. Poet Stephen Dunn regards Becker as achieving “what may be one of the early twenty first century’s most difficult accomplishments—to write a credible poetry of affirmation. In the doing, she doesn’t pretty up the world. Rather, she finds language that embraces our dualities, our many-selved presences, regularly demonstrating her kind of perfect affection.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Read
May 25, 2015Rating: 3 1/2
A section each for Robin Becker, Helena Minton, and Marilyn Zuckerman.
Minton's "Mermaid" is my favorite.
Age is the long thud on the door. - "For Bubbie Growing Older" - Becker
We failed in all
positions and blamed
the bed. You blew
your sax and tried to wake the whores
across the way. - "Heartland" - Minton
All numbers are odd. When three people gather
etiquette demands the second person remain silent. - "Second Person Singular" - Minton
dawn
silent rooms
a single lamp
circling lined paper
over which a pen skids - "Now" - Zuckerman
A section each for Robin Becker, Helena Minton, and Marilyn Zuckerman.
Minton's "Mermaid" is my favorite.
Age is the long thud on the door. - "For Bubbie Growing Older" - Becker
We failed in all
positions and blamed
the bed. You blew
your sax and tried to wake the whores
across the way. - "Heartland" - Minton
All numbers are odd. When three people gather
etiquette demands the second person remain silent. - "Second Person Singular" - Minton
dawn
silent rooms
a single lamp
circling lined paper
over which a pen skids - "Now" - Zuckerman
November 23, 2016
I really enjoyed this one: a separate section of poetry by each woman author, but the narratives sometimes come back together in unexpected ways, weaving together lives, past and present, togetherness and separation.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews