About the Book
The third of our #WomenVote100 Anthologies:a showcase for poets Arachne has previously published in anthologies, giving an opportunity to explore their writing in greater depth.
These are poems made of myth and family, origins and anger, journeys and home: witty, clever, beautiful and sometimes harsh.
Whilst not directly reflecting on the experience of women fighting for the vote, the concerns of
women are foremost and are passionately addressed.
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me,
if I treat them like rational creatures,
instead of flattering their fascinating
graces, as if they were in perpetual
childhood, unable to stand alone.
From Vindication by Anne Macaulay, a found poem based on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft.
About the Author :
Cherry Potts is the Director of Arachne Press, for whom she is editor of almost all our anthologies and runs the Annual Solstice Shorts Festival.
Cherry is the author of an epic fantasy novel, two collections of short stories, a photographic diary of a community opera, and has had many stories in anthologies, magazines and online. Her novel of sibling hatred in the 1920s, The Bog Mermaid, won the Quill LGBTQ+ Prose prize 2022.
Sarah is a poet, fiction writer, journalist, occasional playwright, poetryfilm maker and arts reviewer, and editor at V. Press. Author of four poetry collections, three poetry pamphlets and two novellas, she was also longlisted for the memoir prize in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2017. She enjoys artistic commissions, mentoring and working as a writer in residence. Sarah featured in the 2015 Solstice Shorts Festival, Longest Night, and her poem At the Hotel de la Lune, is in the Shortest Day, Longest Night anthology, along side a story, Cut Short, which was read at the 2016 Solstice Shorts Festival, Shortest Day.
Sarah is one of six poets featured in Vindication and one of five short fiction authors in Five by Five.
Anne Macaulay was brought up in rural, northern Scotland but, since meeting her husband in the 70s, has embraced urban life in East London. Proud mother of two grown up children, with 30 years immersed in Education, she now wants to focus more on her writing and loving the Arts!
She has had several poems and a short story published in the last 3 Loose Muse anthologies.
Anne has poems in The Other Side of Sleep and Menopause: The Anthology
Anne is one of 6 poets featured in Vindication for which she provided the title.
Sarah Lawson was born in Indiana and educated at Indiana University and Glasgow University, but has lived in London since before decimalisation. Her poems, translations, and book reviews have been published widely. Her translation of Christine de Pisan’s Treasure of the City of Ladies (1406) was its first English translation (Penguin Classics). Her translation of Moratín’s El sí de las niñas was performed at the Prince Theatre in Greenwich, and her own play, ‘Gertrude, Queen of Denmark’, a feminist take on Hamlet, was performed at the Lion and Unicorn in Kentish Town. Her poetry collections are Below the Surface (Loxwood Stoneleigh, 1996) and All the Tea in China (Hearing Eye, 2005); Hearing Eye has also published her pamphlets, Twelve Scenes of Malta and Friends in the Country, and a haiku collection, The Wisteria’s Children (2009).
Sarah has a poems in The Other Side of Sleep and No Spider Harmed in the Making of this Book, and a short story in Departures
Sarah is one of six poets featured in Vindication.
Review :
" a compelling collection... captivating prosody... sharp irony ... fresh, thought-provoking... clear riveting lines... The poems collected in the anthology form an absorbing analysis condensing some major issues in the vindication of women's rights since Mary Wollstonecraft. They are a tribute commemorating women's past sufferings and perseverance, and they point to present commitment to an ongoing fight. "
Carla Scarano in London Grip https: //londongrip.co.uk/2019/02/vindication/
"Perhaps what resonates most from this collection is that whatever the subject matter, Wollstonecraft's exhortation has been heeded throughout: 'Women - endeavour to acquire/strength, both of mind and body, / soft phrases, susceptibility/ of heart, delicacy of sentiment...'. "
- Hannah Stone in The Lake (http: //www.thelakepoetry.co.uk/reviews/april19/)
" The thread woven throughout is one of women's experience: it travels among and between rich and diverse fabrics - from bees, Cornish tin miners to Ancient Greece by way of dream, fable, fantasy, observation and wit."
- Pippa Little in The High Window (https: //thehighwindowpress.com/2018/09/05/reviews-4/#Vindication)
