The debut poetry collection from one of feminism’s most passionate voices, with a new preface by the author

Well before Robin Morgan was known as a feminist leader, literary magazines published her as a serious poet, and in 1979 she received a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry. Monster, her first collection, originally published in 1972, contains work that will astonish, disorient, and move readers in powerful ways.

But Monster is more than just a book; it has become a phenomenon. Written at a time of political turmoil during the birth of contemporary feminism, the title poem was adopted by women as the anthem of the women’s movement; it was chanted at demonstrations and some of its lines became slogans. “Arraignment” stirred an international controversy over Ted Hughes’s influence on Sylvia Plath’s suicide—complete with lawsuits, the banning of this book, and the publication of underground, pirated feminist editions, all of which Morgan reveals in her new preface.

From her well-wrought poems in classical forms to the searing energy and poignant lyricism of the longer, later ones, Morgan’s work when it was first released spoke to women hungry for validation of their own reality—and the book sold thirty thousand copies in hardcover alone in its first six months, which was unheard of for poetry.

Available now for the first time in years, Monster is an intense, propulsive journey deep into the heart of one of feminism’s greatest heroes.

Open Road Media would like to thank you for your interest in this title, and we encourage you to share your thoughts with the book community. We hope you will take your time to post your review on Goodreads or retailer's sites, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Award-winning poet, novelist, journalist, and feminist leader Robin Morgan has published more than twenty books, including the now-classic anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful and Sisterhood Is Global and the bestselling The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism. Her work has been translated into thirteen languages, among them Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Persian.