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Did You Know?
Returning to writing after many years, Elizabeth S. Wolf chose to confront her past. So much of her history revolved around secrets and family conflict. Elizabeth reveals her most turbulent times through the eyes of the rejected young girl she once was. Along the way she recounts political controversies, personal revelations, and transforming relationships, in memory of those she has loved and learned from. A journey from distress to redemption, Did You Know? is a bold collection of poems Elizabeth has dedicated to her mother, her daughter, and to telling the truth in her own voice.
46 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2019
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth S. Wolf
12 books10 followersForthcoming: Parenting in the Age of Columbine, from Kelsay Books, is due out Dec 2025. My daughter was born the week after Columbine. This book is a braided collection where each triplet includes a docupoem about a shooting incident or its aftermath; a personal slice of life; and a quote from an external source, such as Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care. The anchor poem "April 1999" in video edition was featured at the Poetry in Motion Festival in 2024; the print poem was a finalist for the Joy Harjo Prize in 2022.
Still available for holiday gifting: I Am From: Voices from the Mako House in Ghana. Based on a series of workshops held in a boarding house in the rural Volta region, this collection includes poetry from kids aged 9-17. Full of vivid stories, joy and sorrow, including original art and photos. Proceeds benefit the Mako Children's Fund. Open your heart to these kids- you won't regret it!
My words are on the moon! Poems and stories in anthologies Mosaics, UnCommon Minds, Klarissa Dreams Redux, and Vagabond Lunar Collection are included in the Lunar Codex collection, landing on the moon in 2024 & 2025. The archive is now an Artemis Accords Heritage Site. The Writers On The Moon time capsule is scheduled to launch in 2026. Included in my WOTM archive are my full-length books, a local Merrimac Mic anthology, and a bilingual anthology in English and Farsi.
Elizabeth S. Wolf is the author of the 2018 Rattle Chapbook Contest winner Did You Know? (Rattle, 2019), What I Learned: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2017), When Lawyers Wept (Kelsay, 2019), and A Collection of Partings (Kelsay, 2022) . Her poems have been nominated for 4 Pushcart Prizes. Rattle featured her Prisoner Express chapbook project in the Summer 2022 issue. In July 2023 she read at the White House, Supreme Court, and U.S. Capitol as part of The Scheherazade Project. She is a frequent featured reader and a regular at open mics.
Still available for holiday gifting: I Am From: Voices from the Mako House in Ghana. Based on a series of workshops held in a boarding house in the rural Volta region, this collection includes poetry from kids aged 9-17. Full of vivid stories, joy and sorrow, including original art and photos. Proceeds benefit the Mako Children's Fund. Open your heart to these kids- you won't regret it!
My words are on the moon! Poems and stories in anthologies Mosaics, UnCommon Minds, Klarissa Dreams Redux, and Vagabond Lunar Collection are included in the Lunar Codex collection, landing on the moon in 2024 & 2025. The archive is now an Artemis Accords Heritage Site. The Writers On The Moon time capsule is scheduled to launch in 2026. Included in my WOTM archive are my full-length books, a local Merrimac Mic anthology, and a bilingual anthology in English and Farsi.
Elizabeth S. Wolf is the author of the 2018 Rattle Chapbook Contest winner Did You Know? (Rattle, 2019), What I Learned: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2017), When Lawyers Wept (Kelsay, 2019), and A Collection of Partings (Kelsay, 2022) . Her poems have been nominated for 4 Pushcart Prizes. Rattle featured her Prisoner Express chapbook project in the Summer 2022 issue. In July 2023 she read at the White House, Supreme Court, and U.S. Capitol as part of The Scheherazade Project. She is a frequent featured reader and a regular at open mics.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 10, 2019
Wow. Wow. And wow again. What a fierce, unforgettable collection of memoir poems! Most of my favorite chapbooks have been Rattle Chapbook winners, but Wolf’s book overlapped my own life experience in so many ways that I just ordered extra copies for my friends. She illustrates many of the reasons I bristle when people reminisce about the Good Old Days.
The first poem sets the stage, with such an astonishing secret that I can’t spoil for you. Read that poem and you won’t want to stop going.
Here’s to all the women who endured or triumphed over the days of being infantilized, marginalized, and denied civil rights. It was just yesterday, but how quickly we forget. It can be painful to read about or revisit those times, but Wolf also delivers some richly satisfying moments of retribution: waking up, standing up, and fighting back.
The first poem sets the stage, with such an astonishing secret that I can’t spoil for you. Read that poem and you won’t want to stop going.
Here’s to all the women who endured or triumphed over the days of being infantilized, marginalized, and denied civil rights. It was just yesterday, but how quickly we forget. It can be painful to read about or revisit those times, but Wolf also delivers some richly satisfying moments of retribution: waking up, standing up, and fighting back.
May 31, 2019
First, the content: This seems a heartfelt and honest autobiography of a difficult life, often without self-pity. Wolf's relationships with her parents, other family members, ex-husband, college professors and administrators, health care professionals, and bureaucracies in general are fraught--but she seems to exhibit little malice but much (probably appropriate) anger.
Second, the poetics: Wordsworth and Coleridge in Lyrical Ballads argued for a more natural language in poetry than what had come before, a poetry that was a form of heightened but still common speech. The Modernists found 19th Century poetry post-Wordsworth still too stilted and artificial. Post-post-Modernists have continued this journey away from "poetic speech," often going to the other extreme of writing what seems prose with broken lines or even casual conversation strung out across the page. This style is one of today's orthodoxies, and Wolf's work falls here.
If you heard someone read from this chapbook, you would think it a transcript of a woman mulling over her life. That is fine, as far as it goes.
But I read poetry for language that is a selection, or a distillation of normal speech and writing, a "making new" from what is too trite, too used up. Yes, this means there is "artifice." But art is artifice and artifact. Does it ring true in that artifice, speaking in ways that we normally do not but without feeling false? Given this aesthetic preference on my part, you may discount this review if you disagree.
But consider "The Next Night My Mother Called" from Wolf's collection:
"I can't talk to my parents,"
she said. "I am so mad.
My mother came over with a hot lunch
and I didn't open the door."
"Good for you," I said. "You talk
to who you want,
when you want.
It's your house.
It's you life,"
"Life sucks," said my mother.
"Also true," I replied.
Wolf's collection allows her to face and deal with much trauma. It has value. But it does not reward second reading as the best poetry does.
Second, the poetics: Wordsworth and Coleridge in Lyrical Ballads argued for a more natural language in poetry than what had come before, a poetry that was a form of heightened but still common speech. The Modernists found 19th Century poetry post-Wordsworth still too stilted and artificial. Post-post-Modernists have continued this journey away from "poetic speech," often going to the other extreme of writing what seems prose with broken lines or even casual conversation strung out across the page. This style is one of today's orthodoxies, and Wolf's work falls here.
If you heard someone read from this chapbook, you would think it a transcript of a woman mulling over her life. That is fine, as far as it goes.
But I read poetry for language that is a selection, or a distillation of normal speech and writing, a "making new" from what is too trite, too used up. Yes, this means there is "artifice." But art is artifice and artifact. Does it ring true in that artifice, speaking in ways that we normally do not but without feeling false? Given this aesthetic preference on my part, you may discount this review if you disagree.
But consider "The Next Night My Mother Called" from Wolf's collection:
"I can't talk to my parents,"
she said. "I am so mad.
My mother came over with a hot lunch
and I didn't open the door."
"Good for you," I said. "You talk
to who you want,
when you want.
It's your house.
It's you life,"
"Life sucks," said my mother.
"Also true," I replied.
Wolf's collection allows her to face and deal with much trauma. It has value. But it does not reward second reading as the best poetry does.
May 26, 2019
I read the whole chapbook out loud to my wife today. We both enjoyed it. It is a bit of a novella in poetry. It was a winner of the Rattle Chapbook prize. My name is on the last page. WHEEEEEE!
July 2, 2019
This book needs to be read from beginning to end, and once you begin, it will grip you into the world of Elizabeth Wolf, a world you will need to follow wherever it goes. I have difficulty standing on my feet, especially at the end of a long day, yet once I picked it up, with zero expectation that I would even be interested (yes despite the engaging cover), I decided to start with the first one. I stood on my feet, riveted, in the (walk-in) closet, unable to put it down until the last memorable, emotion-packed-but-restrained line.
This has changed my idea of what poetry is or must be. I’m a huge fan of craft, especially formal craft, in poetry. And this book is very well-written, a simple and direct narrative with none of the “we’re going to reinvent language by using outlandish imagery” methods popular among major literary journal editors. But what it says, the story of a lie that destroyed the lives around the liar, a secret created by failing to tell a simple but painful truth, is its strong point, a powerful testament to how important honesty is. It is the exact and most important message we need to hear at this moment in history, when truth itself is being deliberately undermined for personal political gain. It also tells the story of how women’s lives were so terribly constrained, how they were denied agency over their most basic needs. And many women to this day suffer from such treatment. Patriarchy is still alive and ruining lives.
I would say its message and style are on the same page: “honest and direct” as a poetic style shows us what happens when one chooses to hide an important truth. The book has made a powerful impact while nothing is overstated. Some important questions remain unanswered, as they should be. Wolf opened up her heart and world, such an unusual tale, and kept me on my feet, mind transported, even forgetting that I was standing. And when I remembered I didn’t give a damn.
Rattle chapbooks are all Contest winners and are consistently very good and surprising. But this is one of the best. The main point of poetry is in fact to get us to see things in a new way, to awaken us to truths we didn’t notice before. The author succeeded in leaving me entirely transformed. Highly recommended.
This has changed my idea of what poetry is or must be. I’m a huge fan of craft, especially formal craft, in poetry. And this book is very well-written, a simple and direct narrative with none of the “we’re going to reinvent language by using outlandish imagery” methods popular among major literary journal editors. But what it says, the story of a lie that destroyed the lives around the liar, a secret created by failing to tell a simple but painful truth, is its strong point, a powerful testament to how important honesty is. It is the exact and most important message we need to hear at this moment in history, when truth itself is being deliberately undermined for personal political gain. It also tells the story of how women’s lives were so terribly constrained, how they were denied agency over their most basic needs. And many women to this day suffer from such treatment. Patriarchy is still alive and ruining lives.
I would say its message and style are on the same page: “honest and direct” as a poetic style shows us what happens when one chooses to hide an important truth. The book has made a powerful impact while nothing is overstated. Some important questions remain unanswered, as they should be. Wolf opened up her heart and world, such an unusual tale, and kept me on my feet, mind transported, even forgetting that I was standing. And when I remembered I didn’t give a damn.
Rattle chapbooks are all Contest winners and are consistently very good and surprising. But this is one of the best. The main point of poetry is in fact to get us to see things in a new way, to awaken us to truths we didn’t notice before. The author succeeded in leaving me entirely transformed. Highly recommended.
September 20, 2022
i could relate to this way too much. My mother also has MS and it's such a destructive illness.
July 18, 2019
What a gem of a chapbook. Just before sitting down to read it, I had set down a draft of a poem, wondering, was it too narrative? Not really a poem or even a prose-poem, but bones of any essay? I passingly thought that one of my favorite things about reading and writing poetry it is its capacity to tell a story, despite its form differing so much from prose.
Then I read Wolf’s wonderful work. It is proof of this idea.
What seems briefly at first to be a concertedly direct, plot-oriented poetry is revealed to be deceptively precise and lyrical, underscores when read aloud in addition to silently. Wolf deftly weaves the key events of her timeline and her impressions of them in a way that both bluntly unearths stark realities, yet also leaves unanswered questions which force the reader to explore what they might sense for meaning.
Stunning, clear, sensitive and sensible storytelling through poetry.
Then I read Wolf’s wonderful work. It is proof of this idea.
What seems briefly at first to be a concertedly direct, plot-oriented poetry is revealed to be deceptively precise and lyrical, underscores when read aloud in addition to silently. Wolf deftly weaves the key events of her timeline and her impressions of them in a way that both bluntly unearths stark realities, yet also leaves unanswered questions which force the reader to explore what they might sense for meaning.
Stunning, clear, sensitive and sensible storytelling through poetry.
July 7, 2019
This was a fantastic poetry chapbook. Written in a spare New England voice, where more is hidden then revealed, Wolf takes us on a personal yet political journey, transforming a dysfunctional past into a future with her daughter that feels hopeful. Arranged to chronologically to tell the story of her life, the poems read more like a series of vignettes that form a compelling narrative in short novel form (think House on Mango Street). I had never read poetry like this before, and I highly recommend it. This chapbook is the winner of the Rattle Chapbook Contest, and I can certainly see why!
July 30, 2019
I love this book. It is a collection of poems that tells a gripping family story. Post-war sexual politics act in deleterious ways. The setting is something Betty Friedan would recognize. It's a nightmare and yet it's every day suburbia. Thank you, Rattle, for including this in my subscription.
July 31, 2020
Wow! This was mind-blowingly fantastic! Fierce and emotionally engaging. This chapbook captured me the moment I opened its pages, and wouldn’t allow me to put it down until I’d read it to the end. It is amazing!!
March 13, 2022
Oh my god. This book was an incredible exploration of complicated families and the secrets they keep. I will definitely read this again.
May 30, 2019
Did You Know? knocked me sideways. The author masterfully weaves familiar facts from her (and my) family history into an epic depiction of patriarchy distilled and the traumatizing legacy for daughters left in its wake. I read an earlier draft of this prize-winning book the night before Mother's Day - serendipitous timing, to say the least - and am still reeling weeks later. Highly, highly recommended (and available from Rattle for just $6).
August 2, 2019
Ay yi yi! This is a powerful and wide-ranging collection. This reads very much like a memoir rather than a poetry chap to me, which I think is compelling and unlike most other poetry collections I’ve read before. There is a clear timeline here and each piece speaks to the rest in an important way. This is a loving but authentically raw and heartfelt tribute to a mother. I especially loved “Recycling the Travel Section.”
August 27, 2019
I love this book, a Rattle chapbook contest winner. The poems all relate to Wolf’s difficult family situation and the secret—that the mother had multiple sclerosis—that her father knew but never told the rest of the family. Wolf deals with the slow loss of her mother with love, humor and a wonderful touch of quirkiness. Kudos for the beautiful cover, too.
October 25, 2019
The style and voice are often low-key, but the narrative is no less potent and provocative. I was riveted by the story that emerges from these twenty-nine poems--a story of trauma and family secrets and much more. An amazing, one-or-two-sitting chapbook that reads as much like a concise and focusaed memoir as a cycle of poems. Highly recommend. I definitely want to seek out more of Wolf's work.
August 11, 2019
This short collection of poems packs a punch. Wolf's poems form a larger narrative of trauma and growth.
August 27, 2023
#TheSealeyChallenge
Day 26, Book 26
This is an award-winning chapbook from Rattle's annual contest. I believe the poet is about my age--maybe a few years older--as there were so many memories and references in this book that I could have written! However, her story is a lot darker.
This is a very accessible, narrative collection. Anyone unfamiliar with poetry who wants to start reading poetry could easily begin with this collection. Some of the topics/themes in here are family (especially as in dysfunctional), growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, being a troubled teen, sexism, disease (and how one family member's disease affects everyone in the family), and secrets.
The book pulled me in with the first poem, Tangled Web. Other poems I enjoyed include: Before She Knew,The Wall Comes Tumbling Down, My Mother Called Again, and Circa 1986.
A few of my favorite bits include:
"It was a cold and snowy winter
filled with structure and lacking any mercy."
--Fall & Winter 1974
"I stood staring at the space where my mother had been."
--There Used to Be Rules
"When our condo burned down, he made it clear
he didn't light the match."
--April 2007
"Splintery shards remain, like the glasses
that slipped from her numb hands onto
cold hard floor."
--Recycling the Travel Section
Day 26, Book 26
This is an award-winning chapbook from Rattle's annual contest. I believe the poet is about my age--maybe a few years older--as there were so many memories and references in this book that I could have written! However, her story is a lot darker.
This is a very accessible, narrative collection. Anyone unfamiliar with poetry who wants to start reading poetry could easily begin with this collection. Some of the topics/themes in here are family (especially as in dysfunctional), growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, being a troubled teen, sexism, disease (and how one family member's disease affects everyone in the family), and secrets.
The book pulled me in with the first poem, Tangled Web. Other poems I enjoyed include: Before She Knew,The Wall Comes Tumbling Down, My Mother Called Again, and Circa 1986.
A few of my favorite bits include:
"It was a cold and snowy winter
filled with structure and lacking any mercy."
--Fall & Winter 1974
"I stood staring at the space where my mother had been."
--There Used to Be Rules
"When our condo burned down, he made it clear
he didn't light the match."
--April 2007
"Splintery shards remain, like the glasses
that slipped from her numb hands onto
cold hard floor."
--Recycling the Travel Section
June 8, 2019
This poetry chapbook tells a "stranger than fiction" story about paternalistic medicine, family secrets, and a mother's late-in-life feminist awakening. At times I was disappointed by the prosiness of the verse style, but the plot kept me turning pages.
June 8, 2020
Did You Know? by Elizabeth S. Wolf
Don't let the size fool you, this collection packs a punch. It is tragically real, it must have been so cathartic to write. It does have triggers, so if you are a sensitive reader, here is your warning. It is well worth the read and I am thrilled to own it.
Don't let the size fool you, this collection packs a punch. It is tragically real, it must have been so cathartic to write. It does have triggers, so if you are a sensitive reader, here is your warning. It is well worth the read and I am thrilled to own it.
October 15, 2019
Amazing portrayal of a family unraveling and then reforming. So much loss and resilience.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews