Feminists Are Passing from Our Lives

Poetry. Women’s Studies. FEMINISTS ARE PASSING FROM OUR LIVES takes a searching look back over the years since the so-called sexual revolution, the various waves of feminism, the civil rights movement, and the daily struggles of trying to live fully, justly, fairly, and with heart. Can it be done without heartbreak? No, says McGrath, but we’re not done yet. This is a book for fighters, thinkers, for those who want our days to accumulate into something of substance and beauty, in spite of our mistakes, and no matter what we face.

Once in a while you’ll find a poet you realize has felt everything a person can feel. We all have, of course, but unless we write it we haven’t really felt everything. Leslie McGrath chronicles her life and uses it as a foundation to understand others. The tone is candor and the book gets high marks for turning realism into lyricism. When hard subjects threaten to gain momentum, musicality and imagery are their redemption. The title is cautionary. The book is a resolution with intimate stories, full disclosures, and smart perspectives. There’s something interesting that happens when a poet bares her soul. It makes us kinder.–Grace Cavalieri, Midwest Book Review