Women are throwing the best poetry parties

For centuries poetry was discussed without anyone mentioning that, in fact, the focus of the discussion was poetry written by men; the same, of course, is true of art and music. In the 20th century, though, it became increasingly difficult to ignore the contribution of women to poetry, but for those ambitious for their work to be recognized, there was always the dilemma of whether to play it as “one of the boys” for whom “the mind has no sex” or to emphasize their gender at the risk of being ghettoized.

But now, it seems, women poets have no compunction about setting themselves up as the mainstream. And who can dispute them? As a couple of recent anthologies from the U.K. and U.S. demonstrate much of the strongest, most daring poetry is being written by women; it’s we men who have to decide whether we want to try and crash their party.

--from "The Verge of a Language," Barry Schwabsky's review of Gurlesque: The New Grrly, Grotesque, Burlesque Poetics (Saturnalia Books, 2010) and Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by U.K. Women Poets (Shearsman Books, 2010) in the Brooklyn Rail