Rukeyser Trailblazer Kate Daniels
When less than a decade after Muriel Rukeyser’s death all of her poetry was out of print, Kate Daniels took it upon herself to bring Rukeyser back into circulation with her aptly entitled collection, Rukeyser: Out of Silence, published in 1992. What attracted Daniels to Rukeyser was her fierce individuality and unapologetically noncanonical poetry, forgoing formal purity in favor of social engagement and emotional truth. A poet herself, Daniels was intrigued by Rukeyser’s many refusals–her “persistent refusal to do what was expected of her as a woman” (74); her refusal to write to the fashion or political tides; her refusal [...]
