Marilyn Buck was a committed political radical, imprisoned for over thirty years for her revolutionary activities. She was also a prolific writer and poet, publishing her work in a prize-winning chapbook, an audio CD, and in various journals and anthologies. She received a PEN American Center prize for poetry in 2001.
Buck was released from prison less than a month before her death at age sixty-two from uterine cancer. This selection of her finest poetry is a living testament to the fierce intelligence and huge compassion that inspired and informed her life, and to the transcendence of her poetic vision.
"This is an important book on so many levels... it models a degree of resistance most of us are never called upon to develop."-Ms. Magazine
"Though it is unclear from Buck's writing what place organized religion had for her after she left home, these pages contain prayers, answers, wise and generous gifts."-The Rumpus
About the Author :
Marilyn Jean Buck was an American Marxist revolutionary and feminist poet, who was imprisoned for over 30 years for her political activities. She was released on July 15, 2010, less than a month before her death at age 62 from uterine cancer.
While in prison, Buck contributed articles on women in prison, solitary confinement, political prisoners and related issues to Sojourners Magazine, Monthly Reviewand other journals and anthologies. She published her poetry in journals, anthologies, a chapbook and an audio CD. She received a PEN American Center prize for poetry in 2001. Her poems appeared in the anthologies Hauling Up the Morning, Wall Tappings, Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth, Seeds of Fire, and in her chapbook, Rescue the Word. Her poems appear on the audio CD Wild Poppies (Freedom Archives 2004).
Her translations and introduction to Cristina Peri Rossi's poetry appeared in State of Exile, Number 58 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series.
David Meltzer is a poet associated with both the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. A pioneer of jazz poetry readings, Meltzer also formed a psychedelic folk-rock group. He continues to perform with the music and poetry review, "Rockpile." He has edited many anthologies, including San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets (City Lights, 2001), and has published 11 erotic novels. He is the author of When I Was a Poet, Number 60 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. He also taught for many years in the poetics program at New College of California. In 2005, Penguin Books published David's Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer.
Review :
"With the grace of Lucille Clifton and the force of June Jordan, Buck establishes undeniable presence. Courageous and compelling -- make room for some new 'survival code'."--The Brooklyn Rail "There are no apologies here, no appeals for special consideration. As she rejected white-skin privilege in life, binding herself to oppressed people in words and deeds, Marilyn Buck sought no deathbed, deus ex machina salvation from prison, cancer, or the condemnation of the self-righteous... Inside/Out is a special gift, long dreamed-of."--The Rag Blog "There are some writers--Karen Blixen, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurston--whose lives are so unusual that an appreciation of their work depends with an acquaintance with the life. Buck's work can best be appreciated in terms of her commitment to anti-imperialist activism and her internment in federal prisons for nearly three decades. She somehow managed to find, in that harsh confinement so unfamiliar to most of us, meaning and friendship, and she imparted to the world through her work, moments of insight, consolation, and joy."--Women's Review of Books
