Hungers Table: Women, Food & Politics

by Margaret Randall

First printing in wrappers. No hardcover edition. A collection of somewhat subversive poetry by this feminist writer, activist, photographer and translator. SIGNED on the title page. Notes, 109 pp.

Genres: Poetry

109 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Margaret Randall is a feminist poet, writer, photographer and social activist. She has lived for extended periods in Albuquerque, New York, Seville, Mexico City, Havana, and Managua. Shorter stays in Peru and North Vietnam were also formative. In the turbulent 1960s she co-founded and co-edited EL CORNO EMPLUMADO / THE PLUMED HORN, a bilingual literary journal which for eight years published some of the most dynamic and meaningful writing of an era. From 1984 through 1994 she taught at a number of U.S. universities.

Margaret was privileged to live among New York’s abstract expressionists in the 1950s and early ’60s, participate in the Mexican student movement of 1968, share important years of the Cuban revolution (1969-1980), the first four years of Nicaragua’s Sandinista project (1980-1984), and visit North Vietnam during the heroic last months of the U.S. American war in that country (1974). Her four children—Gregory, Sarah, Ximena and Ana—have given her ten grandchildren: Lia, Martin, Daniel, Richi, Sebastian, Juan, Luis Rodrigo, Mariana, Eli, and Tolo. She has lived with her life companion, the painter and teacher Barbara Byers, for almost a quarter century.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The theme of Hunger's Table -- the relationship between a women and the food she prepares, serves, and eats -- is conveyed through a collection of poems, most of which double as recipes, some for delicious meals, others for life itself.Women's relationship to food and cooking is bountiful and severe, writes Randall in her introduction. In the book's thirty-five poems, Randall addresses how food is more than nourishment for the body, it is also nourishment for the mind and soul. The quantity and kinds of food eaten are often influenced by various factors and events in our lives -- family reunions are celebrated around a bountiful table, a woman depressed about her love life (or lack thereof) may comfort herself with a pint of Ben and Jerry's, etcetera. Taking everyday situations as these, Randall creates a series of powerful, beautiful poetry.

Every poem tells a story through a recipe. Every bubbling pot, every hand kneading a ball of dough, and every forkful of food reflects the lives of women and their loves, tensions, tears, and triumphs. Food will fill your stomach, Hunger's Table will your fill your heart.

[Malea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few things are better than poetry and food. This is a beautiful combination of both.