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Admit One: An American Scrapbook
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Praise for Martha Collins:
“A dazzling poet whose poetry is poised at the juncture between the lyric and ethics, Martha Collins has addressed some of the most traumatic social issues of the twentieth century . . . in supple and complex poems. . . .[N]o subject is off limits for her piercing intellect.”
—Cynthia Hogue, AWP Chronicle
“A dazzling poet whose poetry is poised at the juncture between the lyric and ethics, Martha Collins has addressed some of the most traumatic social issues of the twentieth century . . . in supple and complex poems. . . .[N]o subject is off limits for her piercing intellect.”
—Cynthia Hogue, AWP Chronicle
Paperback, 104 pages
Published
March 23rd 2016
by University of Pittsburgh Press
(first published February 17th 2016)
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Perhaps not the most conventionally 'poetic' book of poetry I've ever read but an important one. Collins uses the stories of Carrie Buck, the woman whose forced sterilization is the subject ofthe famous Supreme Court eugenics case, and Ota Benga, the African exhibited in the NY zoo, interspersed with those of her own family, to throw light on race relations in the early part of the 20th Century and, by implication, today. It's a fascinating idea though, I would argue, at some points perhaps a bi
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In her last of a trilogy of books of poetry on the history of American racism Collins connects the dots among exhibits of human specimens in zoos and fairs, the eugenics movement, intelligence tests, anthropometric measurements, healthy baby contests, US immigration policy, miscegenation laws (and the 'Pocahontas exception'), forced interment of epileptics, the mentally ill and the morally 'depraved', forced sterilization laws, the origins of the words 'Nordic' and 'moron', the KKK, Hitler, and
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This is one of those books you can learn a lot from. This poetry book investigates the dark history of eugenics in the United States, and the historical ramifications of it. Collins' writing style itself wasn't to my tastes, a bit plain. But, the poetry form is simply a vehicle for Collins to tell this narrative, and it is successful in doing so. 6/10
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An interesting read. Collins tackles many of the darker themes of twentieth-century America-- white supremacists, eugenics, forced sterilization-- and contextualizes them within more familiar American history as well as her family's own involvement in the movements. I picked up the book for its mention of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (I think the author and I went to the same centennial exhibits at the Missouri History Museum) and I liked the way Collins related early anthropology to pseud
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This book is just wow. It's a researched based poetic look at the history of the US in regard to racism, ableism, eugenics, sterilization, and euthanasia. Not a joyful read, but clever, well researched, playful in language, and, really, so apt given the current climate. I recommend to all.
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A very heavy, very important read. Many of the pieces are not "conventionally poetic" (as another reviewer so astutely put it), but their content is worth so much more than their form.
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Martha Collins (born 1940 Omaha, Nebraska) is an American poet.
She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A., and the University of Iowa with a Ph.D.
She taught at University of Massachusetts Boston; she was the Pauline Delaney Chair in Creative Writing at Oberlin College.
She is editor of Field magazine. She is a member of International PEN.
(from Wikipedia)
She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A., and the University of Iowa with a Ph.D.
She taught at University of Massachusetts Boston; she was the Pauline Delaney Chair in Creative Writing at Oberlin College.
She is editor of Field magazine. She is a member of International PEN.
(from Wikipedia)
![Some Things Words Can Do [includes a History of Small Life on a Windy Planet, Orig. Pub. in 1993]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358737126l/562899._SX98_.jpg "Some Things Words Can Do [includes a History of Small Life on a Windy Planet, Orig. Pub. in 1993]")
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