serpent (w)rite: (a reader’s gloss)

1987 Coach House Press

Out of print, a limited number are still available from Betsy.

Note: sells for $172 on Amazon.

The book begins with the writer getting lost in the northern woods of Ontario. Going around in circles, she experiences that reading is a form of survival which spirals her back to the split of Adam/Eve cast out of The Garden. Like a medieval text full of quotes from a wide range of texts, this polyvocal performance is playful yet deeply questioning of the Adam/Eve split precipitated by the rejection of the Serpent (based on an ancient goddess). The split Adam’s progeny: a culture of suppression, oppression, alienation,  and violence. Formally, one of her most innovative books, reviewed in relationship to “language reformers such as Gertrude Stein and contemporary American poet Judy Grahn.”