Overview

Poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez explores the global oppression of women--and testifies to their resilience--in over 20 countries around the world. Based on real-life incidents ranging from Brazilian ""honor killings"" and Indian sati to Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and ""Mississippi appendectomies"" to rape as a weapon during the Rwandan genocide, this poetry collection bears witness to the sociocultural forces that have waged war on women's bodies, freedom, and humanity. Now, in the #MeToo era, these poems both underscore and expand the conversation on the diminishment of women, reverberating across all continents and through 43 centuries. Inlay with Nacre is herstory--the plight of Woman as bride, wife, mother, and daughter--and a call to action to restore the Feminine in the world.

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9781732209114

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In an era of Me Too, this collection is necessary reading. Guti rrez remembers the stories of forgotten women and girls from different countries who have been abused, assaulted, kidnapped, raped, and murdered. While the poet witnesses the unsheathed screams of gynocide, she also unfurls fists of silence into a rush of sound that shakes the world. These poems--like the people they honor--are pearls: strong, resilient, and iridescent. --CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ, author of from unincorporated territory With an impressive global reach, Guti rrez builds a collection about the diminishment, abuse, resilience and resurgence of women. In the powerful penultimate poem, she returns home for her mother's funeral: Nothing/ stirred but the bird flapping in my chest. And so the poems stir, an incantation from daughter to mother, woman to woman, fierce poems for our feminist times. --FRANCES PAYNE ADLER, Professor Emerita and Founder, Creative Writing and Social Action Writing Program, California State University Monterey Bay Bearing witness to resistance as well as brutality, Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women unearths the harrowing continuity of gender oppression globally and historically. In forceful narrative poems of exquisite clarity, Guti rrez connects the stories of a Sumerian High Priestess, a poet-nun of colonial Mexico, female Aboriginal pearl divers and so many more women, beautifully fulfilling the title's sacred promise. --DR. JESSICA MAUCIONE, Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, Gonzaga University Poetry becomes activism in Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women. Guti rrez's beautifully crafted poems compel the reader to feel the injustice of marginalized women. Individually, the poems are powerful and evocative. As a collection, they are a tour de force. --DR. ELIZABETH URSIC, Women's Caucus Co-chair at the American Academy of Religion and author of Women, Ritual, and Power

"In an era of ""Me Too,"" this collection is necessary reading. Gutiérrez remembers the stories of forgotten women and girls from different countries who have been abused, assaulted, kidnapped, raped, and murdered. While the poet witnesses the ""unsheathed screams"" of gynocide, she also ""unfurls fists of silence"" into a ""rush of sound that shakes the world."" These poems--like the people they honor--are pearls: strong, resilient, and iridescent. --CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ, author of from unincorporated territory With an impressive global reach, Gutiérrez builds a collection about the diminishment, abuse, resilience and resurgence of women. In the powerful penultimate poem, she returns home for her mother's funeral: ""Nothing/ stirred but the bird flapping in my chest."" And so the poems stir, an incantation from daughter to mother, woman to woman, fierce poems for our feminist times. --FRANCES PAYNE ADLER, Professor Emerita and Founder, Creative Writing and Social Action Writing Program, California State University Monterey Bay Bearing witness to resistance as well as brutality, Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women unearths the harrowing continuity of gender oppression globally and historically. In forceful narrative poems of exquisite clarity, Gutiérrez connects the stories of a Sumerian High Priestess, a poet-nun of colonial Mexico, female Aboriginal pearl divers and so many more women, beautifully fulfilling the title's sacred promise. --DR. JESSICA MAUCIONE, Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, Gonzaga University Poetry becomes activism in Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women. Gutiérrez's beautifully crafted poems compel the reader to feel the injustice of marginalized women. Individually, the poems are powerful and evocative. As a collection, they are a tour de force. --DR. ELIZABETH URSIC, Women's Caucus Co-chair at the American Academy of Religion and author of Women, Ritual, and Power"

"In an era of ""Me Too,"" this collection is necessary reading. Guti�rrez remembers the stories of forgotten women and girls from different countries who have been abused, assaulted, kidnapped, raped, and murdered. While the poet witnesses the ""unsheathed screams"" of gynocide, she also ""unfurls fists of silence"" into a ""rush of sound that shakes the world."" These poems--like the people they honor--are pearls: strong, resilient, and iridescent. --CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ, author of from unincorporated territory With an impressive global reach, Guti�rrez builds a collection about the diminishment, abuse, resilience and resurgence of women. In the powerful penultimate poem, she returns home for her mother's funeral: ""Nothing/ stirred but the bird flapping in my chest."" And so the poems stir, an incantation from daughter to mother, woman to woman, fierce poems for our feminist times. --FRANCES PAYNE ADLER, Professor Emerita and Founder, Creative Writing and Social Action Writing Program, California State University Monterey Bay Bearing witness to resistance as well as brutality, Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women unearths the harrowing continuity of gender oppression globally and historically. In forceful narrative poems of exquisite clarity, Guti�rrez connects the stories of a Sumerian High Priestess, a poet-nun of colonial Mexico, female Aboriginal pearl divers and so many more women, beautifully fulfilling the title's sacred promise. --DR. JESSICA MAUCIONE, Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, Gonzaga University Poetry becomes activism in Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women. Guti�rrez's beautifully crafted poems compel the reader to feel the injustice of marginalized women. Individually, the poems are powerful and evocative. As a collection, they are a tour de force. --DR. ELIZABETH URSIC, Women's Caucus Co-chair at the American Academy of Religion and author of Women, Ritual, and Power"

Author Information

Poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez is inspired by the silent and silenced voices of history and herstory. Her latest collection, Inlay with Nacre, was the Willow Books' 2018 Editor's Choice Selection and the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship for Writers of Color. A recipient of the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Drama, her play Words That Burn premiered at Milagro Theatre in Portland, Oregon in 2014. Cindy was selected by Poets & Writers Magazine as a 2014 Notable Debut Poet for her collection, the small claim of bones (Bilingual Press), which placed second in the 2015 International Latino Book Awards. Cindy earned an MFA from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program with concentrations in Mesoamerican poetics, drama, and creative collaboration.

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