About this item
Highlights
- Naiad Blood, a first collection of poetry by Sarah C. Beckmann, describes the story of a young woman who discovers herself in the sport of rowing-although she grew up near the sea, she falls in love with boats and the water all over again, in a whole new way.
- Author(s): Sarah Beckmann
- 42 Pages
- Poetry, Women Authors
Description
Book Synopsis
Naiad Blood, a first collection of poetry by Sarah C. Beckmann, describes the story of a young woman who discovers herself in the sport of rowing-although she grew up near the sea, she falls in love with boats and the water all over again, in a whole new way. Crew not only provides her with an avenue for personal growth, but also alters her outlook on life. Taking creative inspiration from Greek myths and other cultural ideas around womanhood, Naiad Blood acknowledges social norms and issues that women face, and also directly challenges them. These poems embrace change, freedom, and power; they demonstrate that women should be able to engage with masculinized realms-to gain muscle or cut off their hair. And these poems are also an ode to the sport itself, to the magical and spiritual aura that the experience of being in a boat, and being on the water lends.
Review Quotes
Sarah Beckmann's Naiad Blood is a first collection of vibrant formal intelligence at once various in its embodiments and dexterous at every turn. With near mythic urgency, these poems evoke the pulse and discipline-the adrenaline-fueled duende-of the rower's life on water. In the end, the boat to which she gives voice in one memorable poem, "Rigging," races beyond observance and precision into the deeper currents of metaphor-"like waves, these words-they break on the bow."
-Daniel Tobin, Professor of Writing, Literature, and Publishing
at Emerson College
What better life than a life spent in boats, and what better subject to write about? Naiad Blood is an ode to this calling, the coming-of-age inquiry of a young woman discovering herself in a sport that she loves.
-Daniel J. Boyne, author of The Red Rose Crew: A True Story of
Women, Winning, and the Water
