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Author | Jeannine Hall Gailey |
---|---|
Cover artist | Michaela Eaves |
Language | English |
Genre | Poetry |
Publisher | Steel Toe Books |
Publication date | 5 March 2006 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print ( Paperback) |
Pages | 96 pp |
ISBN | 978-0-9743264-3-6 |
Becoming the Villainess is a book of poetry that was written by Jeannine Hall Gailey and published by Steel Toe Books in 2006. This collection, Gailey's first, deals primarily with issues of women and power. Subjects of individual poems in the collection range from superheroes and spy girls to characters from Greek mythology, such as Philomel and Persephone, and fairy tales, such as The Snow Queen.
Poems from the book were featured on National Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor and in Verse Daily and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007.
Becoming the Villainess has been taught in creative writing and mythology courses at several universities, including University of Akron, State University of New York at Fredonia, [1] and The University of Alabama. [2]
A performance art piece based on Becoming the Villainess was created by Alley Cat Players, a performance troupe from Florida. The piece was performed at both the St. Petersburg Main Library [3] and at the Selby Public Library in Sarasota, FL. [4]
Poems from Becoming the Villainess were referenced in the article Poems about Superheroes written by Harvard University professor and poetry critic Stephen Burt. [5]
Critical reviews of Becoming the Villainess have appeared in the following literary publications: [6]
She skillfully disarms us with her dark humor…and then goes to hit us with hard and heartbreaking truths.
In her debut poetry collection, Gailey recreates myths from Persephone to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, examining the victim/villain casting of mythic women with wit, grace and insight.
Yet under the humor is a deep social critique, a study of gender expectations, and an aching loneliness in each persona that develops an emotional resonance that reaches the reader in a very personal way.
Addressing the archetypes of myth, from modern pop culture to Ovid to Grimm's fairy tales, Gailey weaves words expressing the hearts of shunned, reviled, justly and unjustly treated villainesses and female victims of fable. A dramatic, moving collection; each poem has a gripping personal story to tell.
Jeannine Hall Gailey fills her book, Becoming the Villainess, with women—real women, fictional women, mythical women and comic book superwomen who of course, are often real women too.
Gailey favors the narrative, each poem a story recounted with flair. She doesn't veer from difficult matters; in fact, her work exhibits it, visiting violence so often it earns its title with passion and often a dark sense of humor.
Jeannine Hall Gailey's Becoming the Villainess is the poetic equivalent of a pajama party for feminists. Gossip, secrets, and advice are exchanged, along with lots of talk about guys. The party list brings together an eclectic, sometimes dangerous, but always exciting mix of female characters drawn from diverse sources.
While some poets might limit their audience by including characters as diverse as Leda, Philomel, and Wonder Woman, the poems in this book witness the universal, as even the legendary Ophelia is told to, "Stop crouching in shadows, chewing your hair." Many of the characters in Becoming the Villainess are archetypal, yet in the world of the book they are as real as a next-door neighbor, and far more interesting.
![]() | |
Author | Jeannine Hall Gailey |
---|---|
Cover artist | Michaela Eaves |
Language | English |
Genre | Poetry |
Publisher | Steel Toe Books |
Publication date | 5 March 2006 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print ( Paperback) |
Pages | 96 pp |
ISBN | 978-0-9743264-3-6 |
Becoming the Villainess is a book of poetry that was written by Jeannine Hall Gailey and published by Steel Toe Books in 2006. This collection, Gailey's first, deals primarily with issues of women and power. Subjects of individual poems in the collection range from superheroes and spy girls to characters from Greek mythology, such as Philomel and Persephone, and fairy tales, such as The Snow Queen.
Poems from the book were featured on National Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor and in Verse Daily and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007.
Becoming the Villainess has been taught in creative writing and mythology courses at several universities, including University of Akron, State University of New York at Fredonia, [1] and The University of Alabama. [2]
A performance art piece based on Becoming the Villainess was created by Alley Cat Players, a performance troupe from Florida. The piece was performed at both the St. Petersburg Main Library [3] and at the Selby Public Library in Sarasota, FL. [4]
Poems from Becoming the Villainess were referenced in the article Poems about Superheroes written by Harvard University professor and poetry critic Stephen Burt. [5]
Critical reviews of Becoming the Villainess have appeared in the following literary publications: [6]
She skillfully disarms us with her dark humor…and then goes to hit us with hard and heartbreaking truths.
In her debut poetry collection, Gailey recreates myths from Persephone to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, examining the victim/villain casting of mythic women with wit, grace and insight.
Yet under the humor is a deep social critique, a study of gender expectations, and an aching loneliness in each persona that develops an emotional resonance that reaches the reader in a very personal way.
Addressing the archetypes of myth, from modern pop culture to Ovid to Grimm's fairy tales, Gailey weaves words expressing the hearts of shunned, reviled, justly and unjustly treated villainesses and female victims of fable. A dramatic, moving collection; each poem has a gripping personal story to tell.
Jeannine Hall Gailey fills her book, Becoming the Villainess, with women—real women, fictional women, mythical women and comic book superwomen who of course, are often real women too.
Gailey favors the narrative, each poem a story recounted with flair. She doesn't veer from difficult matters; in fact, her work exhibits it, visiting violence so often it earns its title with passion and often a dark sense of humor.
Jeannine Hall Gailey's Becoming the Villainess is the poetic equivalent of a pajama party for feminists. Gossip, secrets, and advice are exchanged, along with lots of talk about guys. The party list brings together an eclectic, sometimes dangerous, but always exciting mix of female characters drawn from diverse sources.
While some poets might limit their audience by including characters as diverse as Leda, Philomel, and Wonder Woman, the poems in this book witness the universal, as even the legendary Ophelia is told to, "Stop crouching in shadows, chewing your hair." Many of the characters in Becoming the Villainess are archetypal, yet in the world of the book they are as real as a next-door neighbor, and far more interesting.