“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath
Excerpt: I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it— A sort of walking miracle, my skin A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen.
“Planetarium” by Adrienne Rich, read by astrophysicist Janna Levin
“Marrying the Hangman” by Margaret Atwood
Excerpt: She has been condemned to death by hanging. A man may escape this death by becoming the hangman, a woman by marrying the hangman. But at the present time there is no hangman; thus there is no escape. There is only a death, indefinitely postponed. This is not fantasy, it is history.
“Spear” by Elizabeth Acevedo
“what they don’t want you to know” by Amanda Lovelace
“I Am A Nasty Woman” by Nina Donovan, read by Ashley Judd at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington
“Her Kind” by Anne Sexton
Excerpt: I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind.
“All the Good Women are gone” by Susan Nguyen
Excerpt: Have you ever cried during an interview because you started talking about your family, or while serving tables in Virginia when a man’s hand lands on your ass. Have you ever had your boyfriend tell you he wanted to go celibate, which meant no kissing or holding hands, or ever been pulled over for tailgating a cop who called you stupid, to which you agreed.
“Final Performance” by Cynthia Cruz
Excerpt: I crawl along the wet floor Of my mother’s childhood, A serpent, or a long-buried secret, In my mother’s bisque Chiffon gown with small stars
“Still I rise” by Maya Angelou, read by Serena Williams
“Respect” by Melissa Studdard
Excerpt: Because her body is winter inside a cave because someone built fire there and forgot to put it out because bedtime is a castle she’s building inside herself with a moat and portcullis and buckets full of mist
“Wade in the Water” by Tracy K. Smith
Excerpt: for the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters One of the women greeted me. I love you, she said. She didn’t Know me, but I believed her, And a terrible new ache Rolled over in my chest, Like in a room where the drapes Have been swept back. I love you, I love you, as she continued Down the hall past other strangers, Each feeling pierced suddenly By pillars of heavy light.
“My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter” by Aja Monet
“A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde
Excerpt: Moon marked and touched by sun my magic is unwritten but when the sea turns back it will leave my shape behind.
“Fire” by Nikita Gill
“Pocket-Sized Feminism” by Blythe Baird
“Poet as Housewife” by Elisabeth Eybers
Excerpt: Always a broom leaned against a wall, meals never on time, if they come at all. Days without dates through which she moves empty and stubborn, slightly confused. Ironing hung dejectedly over a chair, gestures that come from who-knows-where.
“The Period Poem” by Dominique Christina
“They Shut Me Up in Prose— (445)” by Emily Dickinson
Excerpt: They shut me up in Prose— As when a little Girl They put me in the Closet— Because they liked me “still”—
“what’s the greatest lesson a woman should learn?” by Rupi Kaur
“Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them” by Brenna Twohy
“Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Excerpt: Maud went to college. Sadie stayed at home. Sadie scraped life With a fine-tooth comb. She didn’t leave a tangle in. Her comb found every strand. Sadie was one of the livingest chits In all the land.
“10 Honest Thoughts on Being Loved by a Skinny Boy” by Rachel Wiley
“A Myth of Devotion” by Louise Glück
Excerpt: When Hades decided he loved this girl he built for her a duplicate of earth, everything the same, down to the meadow, but with a bed added. Everything the same, including sunlight, because it would be hard on a young girl to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness
“Feminist or a Womanist” by Staceyann Chin
For more feminist writers on Book Riot, check out our collection of strong women quotes, our Buy, Borrow, Bypass guide to feminist poetry collections, and list of empowering feminist quotes.
