Marge Piercy epitomizes a feminist maxim: "The personal is political." In the essay "Mirror Images" (1980) Piercy writes, "My poetry appears to me at once more personal and universal than my fiction. My poetry is of a continuity with itself and with the work of other women." Just as her novels have been acclaimed and have received widespread critical attention for their realism or utopian vision, her poetry has gained a place in contemporary literature for its strikingly fresh images, powerful language, and evocation of social and sexual feelings. Although Piercy is usually cited as a major representative of a revolution in literature that has grown out of and fed the feminist movement, she has also gained a strong reputation as a nature poet, urban spokesperson, and Jewish mystic.

The daughter of Robert and Bert Bedonya Bunnin Piercy, Marge Piercy was born on 31 March 1936 in Detroit and grew up...