Hemisphere: Poems

by Ellen Hagan

Winner, 2015 Seven Sisters Book Award for Poetry 

The poems in Hemisphere explore what it means to be a daughter and what it means to bear new life. Ellen Hagan investigates the world historical hemispheres of a family legacy from around the globe and moves down to the most intimate hemisphere of im­pending motherhood. Her poems reclaim the female body from the violence, both literal and literary, done to it over the years. Hagan acknowledges the changing body of a mother from the strains of birth—from the growing body of a child, to the scars left most visibly by a C-section—as well as the changes wrought by age and, too often, abuse. The existence of a hemisphere im­plies a part seeking a whole, and as a collection, Hemisphere is a coherent and cogent journey toward reclamation and wholeness.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2015

About the author

Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer, and educator. Her books include: Crowned, Hemisphere, Watch Us Rise, a YA collaboration with Renée Watson, Blooming Fiascoes, Reckless, Glorious, Girl, Don’t Call Me a Hurricane and All That Shines. She has a new YA project forthcoming in 2025 with her partner David Flores. Ellen's poems and essays can be found in Oprah Magazine, ESPNW, So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (edited by Aracelis Girmay), Creative Nonfiction, Underwired Magazine, She Walks in Beauty (edited by Caroline Kennedy), Huizache, Small Batch, and Southern Sin. Ellen's performance work has been showcased at The New York International Fringe and Los Angeles Women's Theater Festival. She is the recipient of the 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowing in poetry, the 2013 NoMAA Creative Arts Grant and received grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts. National arts residencies include The Hopscotch House in Louisville, Kentucky and Louisiana Arts Works. Ellen is Head of the Poetry & Theatre Departments at the DreamYard Project and directs their International Poetry Exchange Program with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia. She is on faculty in the low residency MFA program at Spalding University and co-leads the Alice Hoffman Young Writer's Retreat at Adelphi University. A proud Kentucky writer, Ellen is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, Conjure Women, and is co-founder of the girlstory collective. She lives with her partner and children in New York City.

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fellow Kentuckian and woman with a stronghold on her own reflective experience, Ellen Hagan struck me from the moment she began speaking one of her poems at an arts program I attended when I was sixteen. I purchased this collection of poetry immediately after her performance and speech alongside her husband, and have been enchanted by her words ever since.

[Nikita Ladd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellen Hagan is a powerful poet whose words you can hear as you're reading. She write about self, body, love, and childbirth with intense honesty. New York is singing in these poems, as is Kentucky, and heritage of places far beyond that. Teared up multiple times while reading.

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purchased from the author after hearing her read at AWP; poems about mothering.

[C Heaslip · Rating 5 out of 5]

So approachable. Some could be used for middle school. Especially the one about changing your name.