EVE, outlandish
a new poetry manuscript in progress
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Text in black, outlined in pink and orange. EVE, outlandish. a new work in prgrss. PHOTO: a close up of what i think is a wasp or hornet on a yellow leaf. Photo credit: Affinity Photo: Ralph.
Inspired by a several feminist retellings of histories and myths that I heard about thanks to David Naimon’s enriching and vital literary podcast, Between the Covers, I began writing imaginative retellings of Eve. I wrote two poems and in response to invited sollicitations and calls for submission, I sent them both out for publication consideration. Both have now been published:
IN THE BEGINNING: THE FLEE OF GNAWLEDGE, published by rob mclennan in a folio of 45 Ottawa poets for Periodicities.
“This is an excerpt from a new work in which I attempt to retell the story of Eve and other women in weird ways. inspired by the various feminist retellings of myth and a recent episode of Between the Covers in which David Naimon talks to Diana Arterian on her two latest books: Agrippina the Younger & Smoke Drifts
Arterian speaks about the erasure of women in accounts from ancient history. Agrippina was Nero’s mother and in one of the outlandish tales of her death, he cuts her open so he can see her womb, the site of his origin. I was also thinking about Maria Devana Headley’s retellings of Beowulf, her focus on Grendel’s mother. I may also write of Mary and of Joan of Arc in other weird versions of the story that my imagination can dream up. This one is a wordplayers delight, I hope. It was mine. I found out there were a lot of insects mentioned in the Bible.”
not made of rib, but ocean published by the League of Canadian Poets on Poetry Pause, its daily poetry newsletter on the National Poetry Month 2026 theme of Land and Water. I’m fascinated by water and ecosystems within.
Thank you to editors rob and Darby Minott Bradford, and to the League of Canadian Poets.