Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry
Edited by Marcella Durand and Jennifer Firestone
The MIT Press, 2024, 264 pages
$32.95

Reviewed by Isabelle Drake

Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry is a collection of vibrant essays by a diverse group of key feminist avant-garde poets. It focuses on community, philosophy, resistance, race, class, gender, and sexuality, among other topics. The collection is edited by Marcella Durand, an essayist, translator, and award-winning poet, along with Jennifer Firestone, an author, poet, editor, and professor.

In the brilliant introduction to the collection, Durand and Firestone define the meaning of the word “influence,” moving away from its historical hierarchical connotations and tailoring it to fit broader, more diverse applications. They also discuss and acknowledge the racist traditions of historical avant-garde poetry and center the book to celebrate people of color, queer, and transgender radical avant-garde feminist writers.

Eileen Myles, Nicole Brossard, Harryette Mullen, and Sawako Nakayasu are four of the writers offering their perspectives on influence and feminist avant-garde poetry. A memorable moment regarding how writers influence each other was in Harryette Mullen’s “Props to My Peeps: A Roll Call” and Erica Hunt’s “Writing By Hand—Beginning.” In these two essays, we see the themes of collaboration and influence as the authors discuss an archival photo of “The Sisterhood,” which was a networking organization of Black women who were writers and activists during the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s. They spoke about how the movement influenced their writing journeys and described the conversations it invoked between the two writers.

In both “Nexus: Feminist Avant-Garde Poetics” by Rachel Blau DuPlessis and “The Long Arc” by Brenda Coultas, the authors ask, “Do we have agency over what influences us?” They believe that in some ways we can control what influences us. We can control what media we consume, the people we surround ourselves with, the establishments we give our business to, and, overall, we can control what we create. However, there are events in life that we have zero control over, such as our upbringings.

For writers, poets, and feminists, this book will incite useful ideas regarding what personally influences you, as well as being more discerning regarding the influences that you can control and choose to surround yourself with. Everything is influence. Every action is influenced by the one before, and that action will influence the next. Writers are influenced by what they read, where they are from, the lives they lived, the good and bad decisions they have made, and, most importantly, the community that surrounds them. If you are a writer or poet dabbling in the avant-garde, feminist ideas, collaboration, or want to be more aware of what influences you, this collection will prove to be outstandingly helpful and inspirational. Likewise, the essential reading, listening, and watch lists that these inspirational writers provide are invaluable.

Isabelle Drake is a writer and poet who lives in Savannah, Georgia, and has lived all around the world. She is a graduating senior at the Savannah College of Art and Design, getting her BFA in Writing. She has focused her writing and studies on feminist and lesbian topics.