"Regional poetry at its best, where the strongly articulated local voice slips easily, persuasively, and movingly into the universal." -- J. R. Willingham, Choice "Uses the history and prehistory of the Sangamon river valley as his subject matter; the poems are laconic, earthy, full of sharply observed details, and are rendered with a flair for common speech." -- Library Journal "Knoepfle has long been misunderstood and underestimated among U.S. poets. . . . poems from the sangamon, his finest single collection to date, celebrates the Sangamon country around Springfield." -- Charles Guenther, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Captures without nostalgia a time and a people in their essences, embodying their raw emotions, their dreams, and the bitter realities of being caught up in the twentieth century." -- Anne C. Bromley, Prairie Schooner

Collection of poems from 25 years of Sojourner For much of its history Sojourner was the most widely circulated feminist literary journal in America, and more than 1,200 poems have appeared in its pages since it began publication in 1975. Nearly 150 of those poems are collected in this volume, where together they form a powerful testament to the vibrancy, wit, and diversity of feminist poetry. In addition to works by such well-known poets as Molly Peacock, Nikki Giovanni, Betsy Sholl, and Adrienne Rich, this collection includes poems by women from a host of different backgrounds, including many whose work appeared in print for the first time in Sojourner. Some of these poems explode with energy, others speak with a haiku-like softness; some discuss love, lust, and sexuality, while others deal with loss, divorce, and revenge. The voices collected here are old and young, rural and urban, straight and gay, from mothers and daughters to wives, lovers, and countless others, all contributing to this anthology's wide-ranging conversation about feminism and feminist poetics.