Who We Are
Eloise Bruce, Juditha Dowd, Lois Marie Harrod, Betty Lies, Judy Michaels, Sharon Olson, Penelope Scambly Schott, Maxine Susman, Gretna Wilkinson.
Cool Women, a poetry critique group founded in 1995 by Carolyn Foote Edelmann and Betty Lies, has been performing since Valentine’s Day, 2000. Known for their sassy poetry readings from Princeton, New Jersey, to Portland, Oregon, they have been called “bold, insightful and provocative” as well as “zesty, protean and prodigious.” Terry Blackhawk writes “the weaving of poetic voices is remarkable, raising a single luminous canopy” above its separate authors.
Although each poet has her own strong voice, Cool Women think of themselves as a group in which the communal enriches the individual. So collectively, Cool Women have been married 16 times, and have l8 children and l8 grandchildren. They have written 46 books and chapbooks, appeared in 46 anthologies beond the 4 volumes published by Cool Women Press, and published over 1000 poems in literary journals and online. They have sold cosmetics at Macy’s in Herald Square, made donuts at a cider mill, designed children’s clothes, catered weddings and photographed public restrooms. They avoid, when possible, ironing, vacuuming and scrubbing toilets.
