Workshop #1

Prompt: Take 15 minutes and write a practice pitch for Ms. Magazine.

[For the purposes of this exercise, I wrote as though submitting my piece, "Women in Poetry in the 19th and 20th Centuries," which is already published here as part of the Feminist Archive Exhibits.]

Hello Roxy,

We tend to have this idea that poetry, historically, is entirely written by white men – William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Alfred Tennyson. Today, this gives us the impression that women and Women of Color weren’t writing anything…but this is incorrect.

I would love to write a piece that explores specific examples of how women’s poetry has long been an invaluable social and political realm of forbidden self-expression and resistance. Historically, women have used poetry to call for change and make statements in politics – a realm from which they were firmly excluded – as well as within their social spheres. My piece would highlight some of these women, with writings by Black Women during the Reconstruction Era to lesbian poetry of the 1980s.

Women poets have always existed, and we have always used our voices – and we must continue to do so.

I am a junior college student at the University of Washington, Bothell, and have taken feminist writing classes with Kari Lerum and Dr. Julie Shayne, both of whom have published with Ms. Magazine. They inspired me to submit my work for your consideration.

Thank you for your time,

Tessa Denton