The release event for Lunation: A Good Fat Anthology of 114 Women Poets in South Church on International Women’s Day was amazing. We heard from eighteen poets from the book as well as local songwriting duo River Sister and the books sponsor Feminist Oasis

I believe that women are taking over the world and I want to help them do it. Because men can’t just stand by and watch women fight for equality and women’s rights and a better world. Because the problems that men have created will not be solved by men.

Some might say, that’s a lot to put on a book of poetry, but I don’t think so. Because there’s a revolution going on and poetry has always been part of the revolution. Poetry provides the very personal individual stories of that revolution. Poetry holds up a magnifying glass to all the granular feelings of the moment and poetry steps back and shows us the big picture. Poetry is the mythology of the moment. 

There is pain and suffering and anger in this book, and there is peace and joy and love; often, all in the same poem. This book is filled with the voices of women as they are in their lives right now. 

Brenna lilly, who’s in the book, in a post about this book and the event said, “WOMEN OWN POETRY – we are the story-tellers, the lineage-keepers, the ones who remember.” And history will remember these storytellers, these lineage keepers, at this moment, this lunation, as they cycle on and on into future.

Another more personal reason I wanted to make this book and do this event, I need to show my 16-year-old son, this is how you behave, this is how you listen, this is how you can participate in the revolution for a better world.

All my life, my best friends, my heroes, the ones that have taught me the most, have been women. And every one of the women in this book have become my friends and heroes and teachers as well, and I feel so lucky and grateful for that. 

Thank you Lauren WB Vermette for the title of the book. Thank you Taylore Dawn Kelly for allowing her incredible artwork to be on the cover. Thank you Crystal Paradis and her organization Feminist Oasis for putting her stamp of approval on this book and being its sponsor. And thank you Wendy Cannella for editing this book with me, for the beautiful foreword, and for putting up with me throughout the process. I had many insecure questions about how to put this book together. Some stuff she talked me into, some stuff she talked me out of. Nothing was done without her input. It would not be what it is without her. 

Also, thank you to the Portsmouth poet laureate program for supporting this project in every way including monetarily.

And thank you, most of all, to every woman in the book for trusting me and being a part of Lunation. 

You can purchase a copy of the book at Book and Bar in Portsmouth, NH or read for free online at Bee Monk Press. The book is 14 dollars, which includes shipping, and don’t forget to leave your address. Lunation is part of the not-for-profit  Good Fat series of poetry publications and all money from the sale of the book goes to the PPLP to pay for the cost of production and printing and for future community building projects.