Ask Again Later

Poetry. Women's Studies. Lucille Clifton's wish that she hopes her poetry will 'comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable' describes the project of this ambitious new book. In Nancy White's ASK AGAIN LATER, she offers vivid reimaginings of Biblical narratives, with women's lives and experiences at the center. The voices that speak in these poems include Lot's wife, Ruth, Mary Magdalene, Lucifer and God. Here, Betty Friedan reads aloud to Eve, Mary explains how she will reclaim her body, and Lilith talks to Bill Clinton. White recasts old narratives to imagine new possibilities in poems that offer consolation and hope and endless, thrilling surprise.--Nicole Cooley