They Still Call Us Witches by Anne Gottlieb

$17.99

These poems are personal yet relatable. Anne Gottlieb plunges into her memories and lifts from them powerful revelations around womanhood, motherhood, and love. The use of the golden shovel form makes her personal experiences also feel collective, as the words of other women act like a skeleton and foundation for her own.

–Kara Jackson, award-winning singer, songwriter, and former National Youth Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate of Chicago.

With her debut chapbook, They Still Call Us Witches, Anne Gottlieb utilizes Terrance Hayes’ Golden Shovel form to create new work inspired by authors well-known alongside up-and-comers who Gottlieb pays homage to. Gottlieb’s own striking lines drawn us in and wake us up. Inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks, we have: “The whirling-/world around her would never again so easily put her in her place.” Inspired by Ada Limón: “I taste the bile in my mouth and then swallow it down.” Finally, inspired by Jamila Woods: “You’re gonna/ sit with the shadows and stillness. You will be, stony seeds in the cool mud….” With the overarching theme of battling misogyny, Gottlieb leaves the reader hungering for more.

–Peter Kahn, poet educator and editor of two poetry anthologies, Respect the Mic and The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, 2024 American Writers Museum “Inspiring Teacher” Award winner.

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They Still Call Us Witches

by Anne Gottlieb

Paper

979-8-89990-259-8

2025

In creating the Golden Shovel form, Terrance Hayes honors the legendary Gwendolyn Brooks. Gottlieb uses the form to not only honor Ms. Brooks, but many other influential writers for an entire collection. She honors women and women alone, illustrating their universal struggles and triumphs through often personal specificity. In They Still Call Us Witches, themes of identity, relationships, and love follow the arc of growing up. On the outside looking in on her own life, a sense of ‘otherness’ is found in navigating relationships and this feeling, along with feeling connected to all women, becomes a source of strength. #poetry #identity #gwendolynbrooks

Anne Gottlieb‘s work can be found in Salon, East on Central, and California English, and she writes a blog about being an empty nester with over one hundred loyal readers. She studied creative writing at the Graham School at the University of Chicago and earned her doctorate in Education Leadership from National Louis University. She teaches high school English in Hillside, Illinois.