Catherine Arra’s moving poetry collection, Her Landscape, casts a dazzling spotlight on the life of Mileva Marić Einstein, first wife and long-time collaborator of Albert Einstein. It is an ambitious undertaking to illuminate the invisibility of a brilliant female scientist eclipsed by the confident and charming entitlement of her male colleague and husband who then divorces her for another woman. These poems, braided with tenderness and harsh fact, succeed wildly. In the poet’s voice of Mileva Marić Einstein: “You cannot lose what belongs to you. This too is a universal law.”
–Beate Sigriddaughter, author of Dancing in Santa Fe and other poems and editor of Writing In A Woman’s Voice
Drawing on historical writings and an awareness of social constraints placed on women, as well as her own keen sense of the workings of heart and psyche and exquisite imagination, Catherine Arra takes us deep into the life of Mileva Marić Einstein, brilliant mathematician, lover/spouse, mother, and then an abandoned/erased wife. By giving her voice, the woman mentioned ‘in passing’ as Albert Einstein’s first wife can say I am Mileva. And we rejoice to know her.
–Karen Neuberg, author of PURSUIT and the elephants are asking
This compelling collection is both incisive and poetically beautiful. Catherine Arra has created a miraculous hybrid: a set of lilting, evocative poems that give voice to one of history’s most neglected and important women, Mileva Marić. A notable mathematician, she was Albert Einstein’s first wife and his collaborator. In these finely crafted, lyrical poems, she comes alive as a complex character, humiliated by Einstein, her contributions ignored, yet full of dignity, grace, and intelligence. This is a masterful creation.
–José Sotolongo, author of The Scented Chrysalis
Darkly sensual grief woven through comprehensive incomprehension (how could this happen to me; yet it did), Her Landscape is a dramatic unfurling from ‘the voice’ of Einstein’s first wife, Mileva. Phrasings, pacing, and execution glitter on the page. An elegant, impeccable work of art.
–Susan Tepper, author of What Drives Men and The Merrill Diaries
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