Women Poets of the World

by Joanna Bankier

Genres: Poetry

442 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

Joanna Bankier, American writer, scholar, translator. Grantee University Paris, 1964-1969; fellow American Association of University Women, 1976-1977; scholar Swedish Writers' Union, 1978, 80. Member Modern Language Association (executive committee division teaching literature since 1991), American Literature Translators Association (conference planning committee 1980-1988).
Bankier, Joanna was born on June 19, 1939 in Warsaw, Poland. Arrived in Sweden, 1946. Daughter of Leon Arje and Maria Masza (Nowomiast) Bankier.
Licence in letters, University Paris IV, 1966. Diploma in letters, University Paris IV, 1967. Secondary education teaching certified, University Paris IV.

Master of Arts in Comparative Literature, University California, Berkeley, 1973. Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature, University California, Berkeley, 1985.

Reviews

[Samantha]

this is an anthology from 1983, so it's pretty outdated. it's divided into countries/areas of the world, but also europe is separated into time periods and north america also includes subsections of african american, asian american, and chicana american poetry, then there's a separate section for native american. each section has an introduction, and each introduction is depressing. they all talk about how women's voices were suppressed in that particular region/time period. it's important, but definitely casts a pall over the book. if you're not reading about the crushing effects of patriarchy, it's colonialism, genocide, racism, intersectional oppression.

for me, if it's not contemporary or plath, I like romantic poetry best, so the poetry here wasn't really focused on my taste. there were two plath poems, the moon and the yew tree and mushrooms. the dickinson poems they chose were lesser known ones. one atwood, one sexton. one leslie marmon silko. one paula gunn allen. I did discover charlotte mew, I liked the two poems of hers they put in.

[Bailey]

I found this book while I was working on an assignment for one of my classes in the library.

It truly is an excellent showcase of poetry from women all around the world. For each section of the world they gave an introduction about the history and the poems. It was a beautiful way to experience these poems!!

The only thing I could ask for is an updated book. One with modern poems for all over the world as well. Other than that this book was truly amazing!

[Angie]

I highly recommend this volume of poetry!