Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist and writer. Her work includes '' Woman on the Edge of Time''; '' He, She and It'', which won the 1993

Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...

; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a

New York Times Best Seller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

and a sweeping historical novel set during World War II. Piercy's work is rooted in her Jewish heritage,

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

social and political activism, and feminist ideals.

Life

Family and early life

Marge Piercy was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

to Bert (Bunnin) Piercy and Robert Piercy. While her father was non-religious from a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

background, she was raised Jewish by her mother and her

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...

maternal grandmother, who gave Piercy the Hebrew name of Marah. On her childhood and Jewish identity, Piercy said: "Jews and blacks were always lumped together when I grew up. I didn’t grow up 'white.' Jews weren't white. My first boyfriend was black. I didn't find out I was white until we spent time in Baltimore and I went to a segregated high school. I can't express how weird it was. Then I just figured they didn't know I was Jewish." An indifferent student in her early childhood, Piercy developed a love of books when she came down with the

German measles Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles, is an infection caused by the rubella virus. This disease is often mild, with half of people not realizing that they are infected. A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and ...

and

rheumatic fever Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful ...

in her mid-childhood and could do little but read. "It taught me that there's a different world there, that there were all these horizons that were quite different from what I could see".

Education

Upon graduation from Mackenzie High School, Piercy became the first in her family to attend college, studying at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

where she received a B.A. degree in 1957. Winning a Hopwood Award for Poetry and Fiction (1957) enabled her to finish college and spend some time in France. She earned an M.A. from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1958.

Adulthood

After graduating college, Piercy and her first husband went to France, then returned to the United States. They divorced when Piercy was 23. Living in Chicago, she supported herself working various part-time jobs while unsuccessfully trying to get her novels published. It was during this time that Piercy realized she wanted to write fiction that focused on politics, feminism, and working-class people. After her second marriage, Piercy became involved in the organization Students for a Democratic Society. In 1968, Piercy's first book of poetry, ''Breaking Camp,'' was published, and her first novel was accepted for publication that same year.

Personal life and relationships

At a young age Marge Piercy was married to her first husband, a French Jewish

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. However, the marriage failed when she was 23; Piercy attributes this to his expectations of gender roles in marriage. In 1962 she married her second husband, Robert Shapiro, a computer scientist. They divorced, and Piercy married her current husband, Ira Wood. She and her husband live in Wellfleet, MA. Piercy designed their home, where the couple have been living since the 1970s.

Activism

Piercy was involved in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...

, and Students for a Democratic Society. She is a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

, social, and anti-war activist. In 1977, Piercy became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP), an American nonprofit publishing organization that works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

Writing

Piercy is the author of more than seventeen volumes of poems, among them ''The Moon Is Always Female'' (1980, considered a

classic) and ''The Art of Blessing the Day'' (1999). She has published fifteen novels, one play (''The Last White Class,'' co-authored with her current—and third—husband Ira Wood), one collection of essays (''Parti-colored Blocks for a Quilt''), one non-fiction book, and one memoir. She contributed the pieces "The Grand Coolie Damn" and "Song of the Fucked Duck" to the celebrated anthology '' Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from The Women's Liberation Movement'', edited by

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

. Her novels and poetry often focus on feminist or social concerns, although her settings vary. While ''Body of Glass'' (published in the United States as '' He, She and It'') is a science fiction novel that won the

, ''City of Darkness, City of Light'' is set during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. Other novels, such as ''Summer People'' and ''The Longings of Women'' are set during modern times. All of her books share a focus on women's lives. '' Woman on the Edge of Time'' (1976) mixes a

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

story with issues of social justice, feminism, and the treatment of the

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

. This novel is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic.

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...

has credited '' Woman on the Edge of Time'' as the birthplace of

Cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and ...

, as Piercy mentions in an introduction to ''Body of Glass''. ''Body of Glass'' ('' He, She and It'', 1991) itself postulates an environmentally ruined world dominated by sprawling mega-cities and a futuristic version of the Internet, through which Piercy weaves elements of

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in ...

and the legend of the

Golem A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...

, although a key story element is the main character's attempts to regain custody of her young son. Many of Piercy's novels tell their stories from the viewpoints of multiple characters, often including a first-person voice among numerous third-person narratives. Her World War II historical novel, ''Gone to Soldiers'' (1987) follows the lives of nine major characters in the United States, Europe and Asia. The first-person account in ''Gone to Soldiers'' is the diary of French teenager Jacqueline Levy-Monot, who is also followed in the third person after her capture by the Nazis. Piercy's poetry tends to be highly personal

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Defi ...

and often centered on feminist and social issues. Her work shows commitment to social change—what she might call, in Judaic terms,

tikkun olam ''Tikkun olam'' ( he, תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם, , repair of the world) is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world. In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to leg ...

, or the repair of the world. It is rooted in story, the wheel of the Jewish year, and a range of landscapes and settings. Piercy contributed poems to the journal ''Kalliope: A Journal of Women's Art and Literature''. Piercy also contributed to the collection of essays by women leaders in the climate movement, '' All We Can Save.''

Works

Novels

* '' Going Down Fast'', 1969 * ''Dance The Eagle To Sleep'', 1970 * ''Small Changes'', 1973 * '' Woman on the Edge of Time'', 1976 * ''The High Cost of Living'', 1978 * '' Vida'', 1979 * ''Braided Lives'', 1982 * ''Fly Away Home'', 1985 * ''Gone To Soldiers'', 1987 * ''Summer People'', 1989 * '' He, She And It'' (aka '' Body of Glass''), 1991 * ''The Longings of Women'', 1994 * ''City of Darkness, City of Light'', 1996 * ''Storm Tide'', 1998 (with Ira Wood) * ''Three Women'', 1999 * ''The Third Child'', 2003 * ''Sex Wars'', 2005

Short stories

* ''The Cost of Lunch, Etc.'', 2014

Poetry collections

* ''Breaking Camp'', 1968 * ''Hard Loving'', 1969 * "

Barbie Doll Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli doll, Bild Li ...

", 1973 * ''4-Telling'' (with Emmett Jarrett, Dick Lourie,

Robert Hershon Robert Hershon (May 28, 1936 – March 20, 2021) was an American poet and the author of thirteen books. Life Hershon was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, He lived in Brooklyn with his wife Donna Brook. He has two grown children, Elizab ...

), 1971 * ''To Be of Use'', 1973 * ''Living in the Open'', 1976 * ''The Twelve-Spoked Wheel Flashing'', 1978 * ''The Moon is Always Female'', 1980 * ''Circles on the Water'', Selected Poems, 1982 * ''Stone, Paper, Knife'', 1983 * ''My Mother's Body'', 1985 * ''Available Light'', 1988 * ''Early Ripening: American Women's Poetry Now'' (ed.), 1988; 1993 * ''Mars and her Children'', 1992 * ''What are Big Girls Made Of'', 1997 * ''Early Grrrl'', 1999. * ''The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems With a Jewish Theme'', 1999 * ''Colours Passing Through Us'', 2003 * ''The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2010'', 2012 * ''Made in Detroit'', 2015 * ''On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light'', 2020

Collected other

* "The Grand Coolie Damn" and "Song of the fucked duck" in '' Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement'', 1970, edited by

* ''The Last White Class'', (play co-authored with Ira Wood), 1979 * ''Parti-Colored Blocks For a Quilt'', (essays), 1982 * ''The Earth Shines Secretly: A book of Days'', (daybook calendar), 1990 * ''So You Want to Write'', (non-fiction), 2001 * ''Sleeping with Cats'', (memoir), 2002 * ''My Life, My Body (Outspoken Authors)'', (essays, poems & memoir), 2015

Awards and honors

* Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, 1992 * Bradley Award, New England Poetry Club, 1992 * Brit ha-Dorot Award, Shalom Center, 1992 * May Sarton Award, New England Poetry Club, 1991 * Golden Rose Poetry Prize, New England Poetry Club, 1990 * Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize, 1986, 1990 * National Endowment for the Arts award, 1978 * Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2004

References

External links

*
Piercy in conversation
with

Martin Espada Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austra ...

May 20, 2009 from Lannan (audio file)
Marge Piercy
at womenshistory.about.com
Marge Piercy
in ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia'' at Jewish Women's Archive *

from Fooling With Words with

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

on PBS
Marge Piercy papers at the University of Michigan
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piercy, Marge Living people 1936 births People from Wellfleet, Massachusetts Writers from Detroit Novelists from Massachusetts University of Michigan alumni Northwestern University alumni 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women poets American women novelists Jewish American novelists American science fiction writers 20th-century American poets American feminist writers American women activists Women science fiction and fantasy writers 21st-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American memoirists American women memoirists Novelists from Michigan Jewish women writers Jewish activists Jewish feminists Jewish American poets 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Hopwood Award winners 21st-century American Jews