Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, and writer. Her work includes '' Woman on the Edge of Time''; '' He, She and It'', which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a ''New York Times'' Best Seller and a sweeping historical novel set during World War II. Piercy's work is rooted in her Jewish heritage,

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

social and political activism, and feminist ideals.

Life

Family and her early life

Marge Piercy was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, to Bert Piercy and Robert Piercy. While her father was non-religious from a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

background, she was raised Jewish by her mother and her

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

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 and rheumatic fever 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 The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, 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. degree from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

in 1958.

Adulthood

After graduating from college, Piercy and her first husband went to France, then returned to the United States. They divorced when Piercy was 23. Living in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, 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, she 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, 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. She runs Leapfrog Press with her novelist husband.

Politics

Piercy was involved in the civil rights movement,

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...

, and Students for a Democratic Society. She is a feminist,

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

, social, and anti-war activist. In 1977, Piercy became an associate of the

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is an American nonprofit publishing organization that was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The organization works to increase media democracy and strengthen independent media. Basic informati ...

(WIFP), an American nonprofit publishing organization that works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media. In 2013, Piercy signed an open letter, described as an "open statement from 48 radical feminists from seven countries". The letter may be interpreted to endorse TERF ideology because it defends the right to exclude transgender women from "women-only conferences". In 2024, however, she wrote on her blog explicitly supporting trans people. "I can’t understand the anger at trans people and LGBTQ etc in general.... Why ''shouldn’t'' someone decide they’ve been assigned the wrong gender? What business is it of governments?".

Writing

Piercy is the author of more than seventeen volumes of poems, among them ''The Moon Is Always Female'' (1980, considered a feminist 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 1970 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 feminism, radical feminist member of the American Feminist movement, Wom ...

. Piercy's 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 Arthur C. Clarke Award, ''City of Darkness, City of Light'' was set during the French Revolution. 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 hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known 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, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

. 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, his ear ...

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 said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

, 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), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbal ...

and the legend of the

Golem A golem ( ; ) is an animated Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely 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 does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free ...

and often centered on feminist and social issues. Her work shows commitment to social change—what she might call, in Judaic terms, tikkun olam, 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", 1973 * ''4-Telling'' (with Emmett Jarrett, Dick Lourie, Robert Hershon), 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 Crooked Inheritance'', 2006 * ''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 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 Council ...

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