Kate Partridge: Both the Preface and the Epilogue of your new book, Fortress, are artful erasures of Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain, which contextualizes the text within a discussion of not only pain, but the bodily manifestations of emotion. I’m particularly taken by these lines: “when she falls in love/ physical pain does not simply resist language/ but actively destroys it.” Why did you select this process of erasure, and this text, to frame the book? Kristina Marie Dar

Sarah Marcus: You are the Contributing Editor of the Saturday Poetry Series on As It Ought To Be. I am a huge fan of this series and of the poets you choose to feature. What is your process for choosing featured work? What value do you see in giving voice to feminist work? Sivan Butler-Rotholz: Thank you, Sarah. I am so happy to have you among my readers! There are a variety of ways I select features for this series, but they all boil down to one thing: I read and engage with

Kate Partridge: What role does poetry have in feminist dialogue? How do you see your work as a writer participating in feminist dialogue? Kevin McLellan: Considering the history—the demographics of publishers and the demographics of published poets — and considering that poems are artifacts, underrepresented populations have a responsibility to not only themselves, but also to future generations and generations past, to publish representative work. Considering this, poetry ca

Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies is a 1405 French medieval, proto-feminist allegory that aims to build a space for women safe from misogyny, sexism, and physical/sexual abuse. It’s a wonderful text to read and teach in a college literature or even rhet/comp course—and its concerns are, sadly, still just as relevant today as they were in 1405. My goal in this post is to share some ideas, resources, and lesson plans that I have found helpful in teaching this

Editors' note: For us, inclusive feminism involves sex-positive feminism. Reynolds' exploration of the complicated relationship between feminism, writing, patriarchal ideals, and romance and erotica novels is fresh, thought-provoking, and probably NSFW. Enjoy! I write about sex. I write about sex a lot. I write entire books where the point is to stuff in as many sex scenes as I can. My novels have boy/boys meet girl, fall in lust/love, have a lot of amazing sex, and decide to