The Dirt She Ate: Selected And New Poems

by Minnie Bruce Pratt

Suffused with pain and power, Minnie Bruce Pratt's poetry is as evocative of the swamps and streets of the southern United States as it is of the emotional lives of those too often forced into the margins of society. Vivid, lush, and intensely honest, these poems capture the rough edges of the world and force us to pay attention.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Queer, Lesbian, Nonfiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Minnie Bruce Pratt (b. September 12, 1946 in Selma, Alabama) is an U.S. educator, activist, and award-winning poet, essayist, and theorist. Pratt was born in Selma, Alabama, grew up in Centreville, Alabama and graduated with an honors B.A. from the University of Alabama (1968) and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of North Carolina (1979). She is a Professor of Writing and Women’s Studies at Syracuse University where she was invited to help develop the university’s first Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Study Program. She emerged out of the women’s liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s and has written extensively about race, class, gender and sexual theory. Pratt, along with lesbian writers Chrystos and Audre Lorde, received a Lillian Hellman-Dashiell Hammett award from the Fund for Free Expression to writers "who have been victimized by political persecution." Pratt, Chrystos and Lorde were chosen because their experience as "a target of right-wing and fundamentalist forces during the recent attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts."[1] Her political affiliations include the International Action Center, the National Women's Fightback Network, and the National Writers Union. She is a contributing editor to Workers World newspaper. Pratt's partner is author and activist Leslie Feinberg.
[from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_B...]

Reviews

[Mary Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite poems: My Mother Loves Women, Sharing the Eye, Waulking Song: Two, Your Hand Opens Me, Poem for my Sons, My Life You Are Talking About, Crime Against Nature

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"the sounds made by those who believed they had to stay
while their hearts broke in every room of the house"

grabs me by the collar and won't let me go.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually poetry is hard for me to read and understand. I love Pratt's though. It is some of my favorite.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful poetry by a fierce femme.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I often think of a poem as a door that opens into a room where I want to go”

[Abby]

I sort of enjoyed this, although in general the poems are long, and (I admit it at last) most of the reason I read poetry is that it's short. I enjoyed the intensely personal selections from Crime Against Nature, and the dailiness of her most recent stuff. Probably won't go looking for more, though.