Marge Piercy

Onetime college girl, loving mother, pickpocket, and unmarried mourning wife Consuelo Ramos, imprisoned in a New York mental hospital for assaulting a pimp, hovers between a future of life dominant and an endless present of neuroelectric experimentation

Poems on a Jewish theme. In Eat Fruit, she writes: "Custom agents throw open my suitcase and draw / out with gingerly leer from under my negligee / a melon. Drug smugglers feed their self-importance, / but me they hate along with the guy trying to smuggle / in a salami from the old country his uncle gave him."

This collection of new poems and old favorites, some long out of print and many never collected in Piercy's previous books is titled in homage to the 'Grrrl' phenomenon - a contemporary expression of the pride and passion of young women's lives exploding in books and zines, concerts, films, and the internetwhich in its honesty, accessibility and humor embodies the spirit of the poet's early work. Early Grrrl presents the bold and passionate ecological and political verse for which Piercy is well known alongside poems celebrating the sensual pleasures of gardening and cooking and sex; funny poems about cats and New Year's Eve and warring boom boxes; vulnerable poems in which a young working class woman from the Midwest takes stock of herself and the limits of her world.

Brings together a collection of poems, recipes, personal reminiscences, and an insightful new interpretation of the rituals and symbols of the seder in a guide to creating a meaningful Passover for the entire family.

Marge Piercy's debut collection of short stories brings us glimpses into the lives of everyday women moving through and making sense of their daily internal and external worlds. Keeping to the engaging, accessible language of Piercy's novels, the collection spans decades of her writing along with a range of locations, ages, and emotional states of her protagonists. From the first-person account of hoarding and a girl's narrative of sexual and spiritual discovery to the recounting of a past love affair, each story is a tangible, vivid snapshot in a varied and subtly curated gallery of work. Whether grappling with death, familial relationships, friendship, sex, illness, or religion, Piercy's writing is as passionate, lucid, insightful, and thoughtfully alive as ever. -- taken from front flap of dust jacket.

At a very young age, David Greene, the guy with the incredible pitching arm, saw his dreams of playing in the majors almost fulfilled. But he never made it out of the minor leagues. Now, divorced, with a son he's not allowed to see, David returns to the shores of his hometown, the small Cape Cod hamlet of Saltash. There he meets Judith Silver, a beautiful, brilliant lawyer, and her husband, the eminent professor Gordon Stone - an imposing presence much older than Judith, a living legend now dying of cancer. These two prominent members of the community befriend, nurture, and eventually push David to run for political office. As David considers the proposition, he and Judith fall into a passionate affair. Into this explosive mix a young woman appears - a single mother at the end of her emotional rope. Crystal desperately needs David, and her son provides a seductive way into David's heart. Yet, caught between two women, and two volatile triangles of desire and devotion, David bears witness to a heartbreaking tragedy that seems as inevitable as the push and pull of ocean waves.

A collection of poetry explores the lives of women, Jewish custom and ritual, the pleasures of the natural world, the cycle of the seasons and of life and death, the enduring power of love, and the complex relationships between men and women.

Under her mother's constant scrutiny and lost in the shadow of her famous senator father, Melissa is the third child in the politically prominent Dickenson family, where ambition comes first and Melissa often comes last. In college, she meets Blake, a man of mixed race and apparently unknown parentage. His adoptive parents are lawyers whose defense of death-row cases in the past brought them head-to-head with Melissa's father when he was the governor of Pennsylvania.While Melissa and Blake's attraction is immediate and fiery, a dangerous secret lurks beneath their relationship -- one that could destroy them ... and their families.Provocative and beautifully written, and dealing with themes of love, honesty, identity, and the consequences of ambition, The Third Child is a remarkable page-turner.

Best-selling writer Piercy and her husband, novelist/publisher Wood, have been co-teaching writers' workshops for about ten years. Their book explores story openings, character building, the importance of dialogue and plot, and how to craft compelling narrative passages. It is rare for an acclaimed novelist to write a book designed to help would-be writers get the job done and get published; rarer still when she is joined by a publisher. For over ten years, best-selling author Marge Piercy and novelist/publisher Ira Wood have been co-teaching two popular master classes for writers nationwide who come to learn: How to begin a piece by seducing your reader; How to create characters that embody the contradictions of behavior; How to master the elements of plotting fiction; How to create a strategy for telling the story of your life; How to read in a new way , with a professional writer's critical eye; How to write about painful material without coming off as a victim. So You Want to Write offers hundreds of insider tips on writing today, including: The seven things never to forget when writing about loved ones; What no one will tell you about rejection letters; FAQ's about agents, work habits, how much writers really earn; What to do if your work is continually rejected; Overcoming the inner and outer barriers to creativity. -- from back cover.