Hard Country

First published by West End Press in 1982, this book-length poem about a journey across America has been out of print for a decade but has maintained its underground reputation as a major response to the male epic consciousness of twentieth-century American poetry. "In this political geography of the continent's body, the land is corporeal, erotic and ever-present. . . . Doubiago's imagination is always unified and political. . . . Sharon Doubiago is 'a complex of occasions, ' a brilliant response to Whitman, an American poet, free, spiritual and gifted."--Carolyn Forche "A unique search for the meaning of personal and national history, narrated by a woman seeking her own liberation and fulfillment through struggle against the reactionary mores and politics of her time."--Thomas McGrath "Sharon Doubiago fearlessly enters the labyrinth of our history, our search and danger as woman as human as deep American wanderer. . . . It is a long saga, a woman's history and a history of us all."--Meridel Le Sueur