NEW Release! Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up, a Poetic Meditation
December 29, 2024
My poetry collection, Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up, came to me in stages over time. However, I first committed to writing a volume of persona poems from the viewpoint of women in the Bible at a Christian Women's Bloom Conference in 2023 in south Dallas. At the Bloom Conference, women sat on a stage in a spotlight and told their stories of difficulties and redemption. I imagined what would Eve, or Rahab, or Mary Magdalene say if they were handed a microphone and asked to tell their stories. I decided that day I would put the spotlight on women in the Bible and give them the stage to pour out their hearts as to how they felt in the stories we have so often read and listened to sermons about. Sermons that often gloss over the women's actions and contributions in the struggles.
My background is that of a journalist and author, accustomed to researching topics and digging for facts. When I wrote Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up I wanted to understand the geo-political situations of the time periods in which the women lived. I researched historical backgrounds and customs and studied an atlas as to their locations, whether in the land of Moab or beside the Sea of Galilee. I wanted to understand the physical difficulties, the prejudices against different tribes, and the restrictions on women in their societies. The more I studied, the more these women became real to me.
I wanted to know their names, so I turned to the Mishnah and Midrash, Hebrew texts that explain the law in the Torah and the gaps in the stories in the Pentateuch. It was from these sources that I found names for Noah's wife, Naahah, and Job's wife, Sitis. For New Testament women, I had no such source to turn to, so I could only give titles to Jairus's wife, Rebbetzin; Peter's mother-in-law, Fishmonger; and no name for Paul's sister.
I also strived to select times in the women's lives not usually covered in Sunday Schools or literature. "Eve's Lament" takes place at the cave-tomb of Abel; "Leprous Miriam's Prayer" at the time she is isolated with leprosy; and "Michal, the King's Eghah" with her second husband, Phalti. This last poem from Michal is an example of how I leaned on the Jewish tradition that the couple never consummated their marriage and Phalti laid a sword in the marriage bed between them.
From an academic perspective, I balanced the book with sestinas, villanelles, and haikus in both the Old and New Testament women's poems. Most are free verse. One of my decisions for the different poetic forms was to vary the voices. I even added some lighthearted, hopefully humorous, pieces to spice up the variety. (Google Books online has a sample of Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up with the first three poems if you want to see an example of the difference in style, though these three poems are all free verse.)
When I wrote this collection, I researched the backgrounds, meditated on the scriptures, and wrote about how the women might have felt emotionally about their situations. My hope, as you read these poems, is that you will hear these women's hearts, as they speak up beyond the words on the page.
For writers who are reading this blog article, I wrote this poetry book in eight months, averaging a tad more than four poems a week. I studied the poetry book publishers and decided I would get a wider distribution if I could contract with a trade publisher who doesn't specialize just in poetry. I submitted it, sans agent, to one publisher exclusively and they made a decision not to accept within a couple of days. Then I multiple submitted to three publishers. (There are not a lot of trade publishers who publish poetry in addition to their NF and fiction books.) Within three days I received a contract offer from WIPFandStock, an academic and trade publisher, which is ideal for me since I am well published in both education and trade markets. I notified the other two publishers to withdraw my submission, then accepted WIPFandStock's offer.
My desire is for these poems to be conversation starters to get people digging deeper into the Word and to think about these women as real people, to think deeper about their untold stories as they speak up and are silent no more.
[Note: After the book is released, I will write blog articles telling the research behind the individual poems in case people want to discuss them in Bible studies.]