R.I.P. Adrienne Rich
I was really saddened to learn of Adrienne Rich’s death last week. The work of this brilliant poet, activist and essayist, I believe, shaped me in my most formative years.
I first encountered her work my freshman year of college, while I was simultaneously taking an Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies class and a Women’s Literature class. She showed up in my literature class first. We read her poems. I admired the simplicity of the language, but her words carried weight.
In my Women’s and Gender Studies class, we read Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Existence,where she argues that women have the right to define their own identities outside the pressures of societal expectations. She encourages women to embrace the complexities of their identities and sexualities.
While her work was considered radical for its time, it was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in my life.
At the Valley Cottage Library, we have the following volumes of her writing:
Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose
-Katie Karkheck
