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"Most of the time when I read poetry books, I'll dog-ear the pages of poems I really like. I started to do this with Danielle (Dani) Montgomery's collection, The Woman You Write Poems About, but within the first twenty pages I realized I didn't have one non-bent-down page corner; every single poem in this collection is intriguing and amazing in its own way. What makes Montgomery's poetry outstanding is that she brings out the brutal truth of really hard subjects. Furthermore, the language she uses to do this is breathtaking in the way that a life realization seriously makes you stop for a second, until you realize you aren't breathing because you've been thinking these big thoughts instead. Montgomery's poetry brings up these big thoughts and makes you stop for a moment (or more)."

Chelsey Clammer
in the Feminist Review
Check out more reviews at: www.feministreview.org

"In Danielle Montgomery's poetry, faith rides shotgun with hopelessness, and at the last minute grabs the wheel, dropping us off at our destination: salvation."

Thea Hillman
Author of, Intersex For Lack of a Better Word.

The Woman You Write Poems About

by Danielle Montgomery
The Woman You Write Poems About is a crash-course in class, personal resistance, and the search for sanity and human dignity. These poems bring the other America into view without pity or piousness.

Excerpt From the Introduction
"My stories don't always sound so sweet", says Danielle Montgomery in one of the poems herein. She's right. Tales of fugitive relatives, destitute swindlers and dangerous families populate her work. Writing bad checks and using denuded credit cards, Montgomery shows us what happens when the "to" in "paycheck-to-paycheck" goes missing. She shows us the effects when basic needs are denied. And her poems insist on reminding us that that this, too, is America, not American literature, and that the line drawn between "us" and "them" is a fiction, a lie we tell ourselves to keep ourselves safe. But none of us, as Montgomery's work shows us, can ever be truly safe as long as we are human."
- Daphne Gottlieb, author of, Kissing Dead Girls.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Danielle (Dani) Montgomery lives in the bay area with her partner and their two daughters. She is as left as you can get and catholic too. She struggles with mental illness. she writes about issues of class, disability, queerness, and yes, joy.

Learn more about the authors and their books.

Ananda Esteva
James Tracy
Maiana Minahal
Dani Montgomery

Molotov Mouths

The Outspoken Word Troupe. Molotov Mouths Website

  © 2009 Civil Defense Poetry