A MISPLACED WOMAN
A Novel of Courage in Verse ISBN: 978-0-9905262-5-4 This stunning book was designed to read like a novel. An intriguing narrator presents a creative look at the most unsung heroines of all: homeless women. Here, they are portrayed through engaging, edgy, and accessible poetry. The result is eye-opening, absorbing and unforgettable. Marcy, author of many books on heroines worked as a volunteer with homeless women for almost twenty years. She knows her subject—and knows how to deepen your understanding of the shadowy women in urban streets and shelters. Without romanticizing the homeless or depressing the reader, A Misplaced Woman penetrates material that is tough and, at times, tender. It a tour-de-force that may change the way you see yourself and your world. |
PRAISE FOR "A MISPLACED WOMAN"
Named to KIRKUS REVIEWS' -- Best Books of December 2016:
"This cycle of poems explores homelessness through one woman’s experience of falling from her privileged, educated background.
"Heidish (Too Late To Be A Fortune Cookie Writer, 2013, etc.), an award-winning and well-published writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, found inspiration for this collection from working with homeless women. The stories are fictional, but based on a notebook she kept over her 17 years of volunteering.
"Heidish chose a well- educated, upper-middle-class narrator “to show that homeless women, narrowly stereotyped, come from all strata of society”—always true, but especially so in the current economy. This choice can make for unexpected, striking images, as when her narrator is glad for the poetry she memorized in college: “I sleep on lines of iambic pentameter, / waking to that music I thought I forgot.”
"Though the subject of homelessness may sound over-earnest, Heidish’s powerful voice, often bolstered by rhyme and meter, makes this collection as tough and resilient as its subjects. But the poet locates far more than toughness in her homeless women; she makes the reader see their undeniable (but too often denied, and thus tragic) humanity. The narrator resists feeling like a charity case, claiming what dignity she can, as in A Donated Apple: “Don’t pity me. Don’t you dare. / I own part of an orchard now.”
"The images are surprising and fresh, which makes an effective counterpart to the often somber tone. Wondering what corporeal laughter would look like, the speaker guesses: “A fountain speaking French in your backyard? // The sound of three knees knocking? / A dachshund as a tango partner?”
"The narrator’s openness to grace gives the wrenching collection its soul. In “Cracks,” the speaker considers sidewalk cracks, familiar from life on the street, and the unspoken stories of cares, hopes, and rage that have stamped across them. She wonders what the point was, but concludes “children still dance here, / … / reveling in their patterns, / freeform, irreverent, illogical, / yet in their eccentric paths, / holy as a cathedral’s maze.”
"A collection that beautifully finds the holy in the eccentric, the homeless, and the disregarded."
* * * * *
1. "Fabulous read for holiday gifting!"
Homeless women, often an invisible segment of society, are highlighted in this marvelous book of poetry. A MUST READ for all professionals and volunteers who work with any aspect of this growing societal crisis. The author skillfully weaves empathy, strength and humor in describing the daily challenges these women face.....outstanding! By Amazon Customer
2. "A Book of Life"
A Misplaced Woman is a tale told by an author who sees and feels through homeless eyes and soul and travels the arc of this truth-fiction searching for home, coming full circle at story's end.
Lovely descriptions counterpoint harsh realities and weave us through this moving narrative that transports us quickly from page one, like a good novel, exploring through exquisite verse the fragile, transitory nature of "home" and finding it in different incarnations created by the women in her story: under a freeway, atop a warm grate, in a car, inside a blue balloon.
The book is narrated by a homeless woman who by slip of circumstance could be one of us, as we gather and increasingly appreciate from the unfolding plot. The narrator, Andie Lane, draws us immediately into her life, driven by a life-defining incident and intensified by choices of her own, and shares her friends with us: Lil, Ma'am, Lulu and others we come to know, suffer with and root for. The poem-story unfolds through the faces and struggles and words of these women brought to life for us in daily glimpses we as readers will remember.
It is a book of struggle, conflict, madness, magic, beauty and faith. It is a book of life. By Eve Dubrow
3. "...but it does read like a novel"
This book is poetry, but it does read like a novel. Amazingly the author has taken a difficult subject and made it beautiful, at the same time not denying the less attractive aspects of homelessness. A needed and necessary book, I think. Carol Huffman
4. "Finding Its Place in Your Favorites Collection"
Beautifully brilliant! Marcy Heidish filters her compelling writing through the realities of homelessness. More than a must-read compilation of shadowy women, this book inspires us all to press outside our comfortable lives to brush against the raw innocence, insights and pain of remarkable individuals who quickly become traveling companions...friends. A Misplaced Woman will find its place in your favorites collection! Beth J. Lueders
5. "Inside of Each Word"
It is not enough to say this novel in verse was wonderful, real and shared a multitude of emotions. Marcy Heidish's novel has opened my eyes to these faceless and often nameless women, Now, I see human beings - each with a story - each with a life - and realizing that could one day be me.
From the time I began reading I felt that I was "inside of her words" and experiencing the emotions of the women. How Marcy Heidish can keep your attention writing so many types of books I will never understand. I can only applaud this author and envy her talent and ability to feel others souls. Sue Kennon
6. "-- Gifts of grit for all in A Misplaced Woman --"
"What kind of craziness keeps us going? We the hapless, hopeless homeless..." Marcy Heidish tell us; no, shows us with her inimitable strength and tenderness and the healing heart of hopefulness why and how the sorrowful, even pitiful and broken homeless women can and do uplift us with their grit and courage. Brava, Ms. Heidish, brava!
A Misplaced Woman -- a novel of courage in verse -- is a must read. Tencha Avila, Award- winning playwright.
7. The Songs of Homeless Women
Listen to this: "Don't pity me. Don't you dare. I own part of an orchard now, a fruit vendor's gift to me today. This apple, like me, is homeless, separated from its family of trees. But it blooms like a rose in my hand."
These are the lyrics of a homeless woman. So insightfully and tenderly written by poet and novelist, Marcy Heidish. Heidish, who spent 17 years volunteering at a homeless women's shelter, often writes prose that sounds like poetry. But this book of poems about shelter women is especially lyrical given what could have been a grim narrative. It's not.
Heidish pulls back the curtain on the stereotyped, misunderstood and maligned who make up her pages. It's groundbreaking stuff. No one has written poetry about these female souls who are mostly invisible to us. Heidish brings them into our lives with beautiful and stark veracity. And once you've read this book through, you will never see a homeless woman the same way again.
This is reason enough to have A Misplaced Woman on your bookshelf. Another is the opportunity to listen to Marcy Heidish's words as each one blooms like a rose in your hand. By kathyodenver
Named to KIRKUS REVIEWS' -- Best Books of December 2016:
"This cycle of poems explores homelessness through one woman’s experience of falling from her privileged, educated background.
"Heidish (Too Late To Be A Fortune Cookie Writer, 2013, etc.), an award-winning and well-published writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, found inspiration for this collection from working with homeless women. The stories are fictional, but based on a notebook she kept over her 17 years of volunteering.
"Heidish chose a well- educated, upper-middle-class narrator “to show that homeless women, narrowly stereotyped, come from all strata of society”—always true, but especially so in the current economy. This choice can make for unexpected, striking images, as when her narrator is glad for the poetry she memorized in college: “I sleep on lines of iambic pentameter, / waking to that music I thought I forgot.”
"Though the subject of homelessness may sound over-earnest, Heidish’s powerful voice, often bolstered by rhyme and meter, makes this collection as tough and resilient as its subjects. But the poet locates far more than toughness in her homeless women; she makes the reader see their undeniable (but too often denied, and thus tragic) humanity. The narrator resists feeling like a charity case, claiming what dignity she can, as in A Donated Apple: “Don’t pity me. Don’t you dare. / I own part of an orchard now.”
"The images are surprising and fresh, which makes an effective counterpart to the often somber tone. Wondering what corporeal laughter would look like, the speaker guesses: “A fountain speaking French in your backyard? // The sound of three knees knocking? / A dachshund as a tango partner?”
"The narrator’s openness to grace gives the wrenching collection its soul. In “Cracks,” the speaker considers sidewalk cracks, familiar from life on the street, and the unspoken stories of cares, hopes, and rage that have stamped across them. She wonders what the point was, but concludes “children still dance here, / … / reveling in their patterns, / freeform, irreverent, illogical, / yet in their eccentric paths, / holy as a cathedral’s maze.”
"A collection that beautifully finds the holy in the eccentric, the homeless, and the disregarded."
* * * * *
1. "Fabulous read for holiday gifting!"
Homeless women, often an invisible segment of society, are highlighted in this marvelous book of poetry. A MUST READ for all professionals and volunteers who work with any aspect of this growing societal crisis. The author skillfully weaves empathy, strength and humor in describing the daily challenges these women face.....outstanding! By Amazon Customer
2. "A Book of Life"
A Misplaced Woman is a tale told by an author who sees and feels through homeless eyes and soul and travels the arc of this truth-fiction searching for home, coming full circle at story's end.
Lovely descriptions counterpoint harsh realities and weave us through this moving narrative that transports us quickly from page one, like a good novel, exploring through exquisite verse the fragile, transitory nature of "home" and finding it in different incarnations created by the women in her story: under a freeway, atop a warm grate, in a car, inside a blue balloon.
The book is narrated by a homeless woman who by slip of circumstance could be one of us, as we gather and increasingly appreciate from the unfolding plot. The narrator, Andie Lane, draws us immediately into her life, driven by a life-defining incident and intensified by choices of her own, and shares her friends with us: Lil, Ma'am, Lulu and others we come to know, suffer with and root for. The poem-story unfolds through the faces and struggles and words of these women brought to life for us in daily glimpses we as readers will remember.
It is a book of struggle, conflict, madness, magic, beauty and faith. It is a book of life. By Eve Dubrow
3. "...but it does read like a novel"
This book is poetry, but it does read like a novel. Amazingly the author has taken a difficult subject and made it beautiful, at the same time not denying the less attractive aspects of homelessness. A needed and necessary book, I think. Carol Huffman
4. "Finding Its Place in Your Favorites Collection"
Beautifully brilliant! Marcy Heidish filters her compelling writing through the realities of homelessness. More than a must-read compilation of shadowy women, this book inspires us all to press outside our comfortable lives to brush against the raw innocence, insights and pain of remarkable individuals who quickly become traveling companions...friends. A Misplaced Woman will find its place in your favorites collection! Beth J. Lueders
5. "Inside of Each Word"
It is not enough to say this novel in verse was wonderful, real and shared a multitude of emotions. Marcy Heidish's novel has opened my eyes to these faceless and often nameless women, Now, I see human beings - each with a story - each with a life - and realizing that could one day be me.
From the time I began reading I felt that I was "inside of her words" and experiencing the emotions of the women. How Marcy Heidish can keep your attention writing so many types of books I will never understand. I can only applaud this author and envy her talent and ability to feel others souls. Sue Kennon
6. "-- Gifts of grit for all in A Misplaced Woman --"
"What kind of craziness keeps us going? We the hapless, hopeless homeless..." Marcy Heidish tell us; no, shows us with her inimitable strength and tenderness and the healing heart of hopefulness why and how the sorrowful, even pitiful and broken homeless women can and do uplift us with their grit and courage. Brava, Ms. Heidish, brava!
A Misplaced Woman -- a novel of courage in verse -- is a must read. Tencha Avila, Award- winning playwright.
7. The Songs of Homeless Women
Listen to this: "Don't pity me. Don't you dare. I own part of an orchard now, a fruit vendor's gift to me today. This apple, like me, is homeless, separated from its family of trees. But it blooms like a rose in my hand."
These are the lyrics of a homeless woman. So insightfully and tenderly written by poet and novelist, Marcy Heidish. Heidish, who spent 17 years volunteering at a homeless women's shelter, often writes prose that sounds like poetry. But this book of poems about shelter women is especially lyrical given what could have been a grim narrative. It's not.
Heidish pulls back the curtain on the stereotyped, misunderstood and maligned who make up her pages. It's groundbreaking stuff. No one has written poetry about these female souls who are mostly invisible to us. Heidish brings them into our lives with beautiful and stark veracity. And once you've read this book through, you will never see a homeless woman the same way again.
This is reason enough to have A Misplaced Woman on your bookshelf. Another is the opportunity to listen to Marcy Heidish's words as each one blooms like a rose in your hand. By kathyodenver