“From the archives of feminist history comes Oversight, a collection of part-found, part-persona poems inspired by the writing of women who have changed the world. These poems do not erase so much as they lift up the words and voices of greats like Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Sappho, Harriet Tubman, Frida Kahlo, and more. Carina Bissett and Lee Murray play the role of speaker, eulogist, medium, hagiographer, and spirit guide for the powerful women of the past, making their work at once accessible to the contemporary reader. Revolutionary, visionary, incendiary, this collection is an enlightening and meaningful read.” —Holly Lyn Walwrath, Managing Editor of Interstellar Flight Press, author of the Bram Stoker Award-Nominated Numinous Stones

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“A fascinating and timely collection of erasure poems that bring historical texts by women around the world to life. Oversight creates new meaning from the words of these women and shines a light on their successes, sorrows, and revolutionary spirits.” —Courtney Bates-Hardy, author of Anatomical Venus

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“The poems collected here aren’t really erasures as they are distillations of the visions and insights of a vast and thorough collection of our most important female writers. In this manner, Oversight provides an introduction to these voices for new readers, and a reminder to readers who consider such writers foundational that one should and must return to their works with renewed vigor. The reflections that follow each erasure poem offer context and personal insights and are, as such, a deep pleasure to read.” —Cate Marvin, Ph.D., award-winning author of Event Horizon and Oracle

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“Oversight is an innovative collaboration from poets Lee Murray and Carina Bissett, who use historical texts from women writers to generate a group of potent poems relevant to today’s world. In conversation with these women, and with each other, Murray and Bissett show how women shapeshift throughout time in order to make progress. The poets’ engagement with both historical and personal discovery allows the reader a way into both the poems and the texts they’re based on, provoking self-evaluation and appreciation. In this way, they act as alchemists of the past, providing greater universal understanding for the present.” —Christine Butterworth-McDermott, The Spellbook of Fruit & Flowers

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“I choked up as I read this powerful collection by Carina Bissett and Lee Murray, just as I was simultaneously filled with joy, sorrow and rage for the defiant women who battled suppression, muffling and erasure through the centuries. It is therefore fitting that Bissett and Murray have chosen erasure poetry, taken from the words of these brilliant, bold and talented souls, not to obliterate them but to reveal new messages from their written works. The beauty of the poems and the biographies presented a richer world, and reading Oversight will create a safe harbour in our memories for these women who contributed so much..”

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poetry ghost women

promise, possibilities, joy

not contained, honoured

 

erasure haiku taken from Lee Murray’s introduction

 

—Colleen Anderson, Rhysling Award and SFPA poetry contest winner

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