What do you think?
Rate this book
Divining Divas: 100 Gay Poets on the Women Who Inspire Them
Editor Michael Montlack has assembled an anthology of 100 gay poets--award winners and fresh voices--in thrall with female icons ranging from Gloria Swanson to Mary J, Blige, from Edith Piaf to Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler to Lady Gaga. These are not merely appreciations of the gorgeous and daring but poems that are confessional to bittersweet to witty.
202 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2012
About the author
Michael Montlack
7 books2 followersMichael Montlack is the editor of the essay anthology MY DIVA: 65 GAY MEN ON THE WOMEN WHO INSPIRE THEM (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009) and the author of three poetry chapbooks: COVER CHARGE (Winner of the 2007 Gertrude Prize) and GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS (Pudding House, 2008) and THE SLIP (Poets Wear Prada, 2009). His work has appeared in CIMARRON REVIEW, SWINK, THE NEW YORK QUARTERLY, POET LORE, COURT GREEN, COLUMBIA POETRY REVIEW, MIPOESIAS and other journals. Recently he was awarded residencies from Ucross (Wyoming), Soul Mountain Retreat(Connecticut), VCCA (Virginia) and Lambda Literary Retreat(California). He splits his time between New York City (where he teaches at Berkeley College) and San Francisco, and has just finished writing his first novel. "
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 31, 2012
In this anthology, you will find contemporary gay poets' views on their choice of diva, be she fictional, literary or pop. This book, conceptually, is an interesting collection and the market needs it. However, I find this book very disappointing, mainly because of the quality. Most of the poems in this book read like stories, by which I mean the language of the poems are too prose-like. I am concerned with the language of poetry that makes poetry as such. Sadly, I am not impressed by the poems in the book because of their sentimentality and their inclination towards the prose language. Very few pieces allow chaos and the whimsical to collide with each other. Words like "dreams" occur very often in numerous pieces, which in fact, is the most tedious way to re-imagine how the diva interacts with the poet. Having said these, there are a few gems in the book. My favorites include: CAConrad on Emily Dickinson, Bill Fogle on Julia Child ("Such a long trip/ from abstraction to skill.", Alfred Corn on Billi Holliday ("Besides, one cruises/ Mainly to cruise.", Ryan Doyle May on Anne Sexton ("It never dries, Anne,/ mother of the milk-dry-mouth/ mother where mine/ was a bald doll/ stuffed with lithium,/ mother of the never/ married, but was.", Joseph Campana on Audrey Hepburn and Alex Dimitrov on Brigitte Bardot.
Displaying 1 of 1 review