Grace Paley, Forever

Davidson
8/31/2007 - 3:59pm
  1. Reading & Writing
  1. Grace Paley
  2. literature
  3. Memorial
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Grace Paley died this week at the age of 84. I had the privilege to meet Grace Paley a few times, which is to say Iwas in the same room with her, awestruck by the passion and compassionof the great writer I had read and reread, taught and retaught. She waslovely to me and others, kind and sincere, and I could barely find myvoice to speak back, so moved by the immensity of the person, thepolitics, the poetry. May she live among us forever. Let me rephrasethat. Grace Paley does and will live forever. That's a pledge.

For a moving tribute to Grace Paley, and one to which you can contribute your own words of memory and memorial, you can go to the PEN website, "PEN Pays Tribute to Grace Paley." Here's the url for the comment wiki:

http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1600/prmID/124#commentlink

 

And for an even more wonderful tribute, paid to Grace before she died by her dear friend (and my friend and co-author) novelist and playwright E. M. (Esther) Broner,

see "My Pal Paley," on the online journal Persimmon Tree, at

http://www.persimmontree.org/articles/EMBroner_MyPalPaley.php. It's wonderful. Persimmon Tree also includes ten poems by Grace Paley, among the last she ever wrote. Subscribe free now, at www.persimmontree.org.

 

 

Cathy Davidson
Davidson4 years 38 weeks ago

Here are two photos from Persimmontree.com

Here are two photos from persimmontree.com, one of the late and beloved Grace Paley, whose "Ten Poems"in PersimmonTree.com (an online journal of writing by older women) were among her last writings. The second photo is of my dear friend E. M. (Esther) Broner, whose "My Pal Paley" prefaces Paley's poems. E. M. Broner is a novelist, playwright, scholar, poet, and, like Grace, an eternal activist. E. M. Broner just finished a major novel about Detroit, protest, and the Vietnam War and is at work on a mystery. She was an inspiration to me in the earliest moments of my career, and like Grace Paley, inspires me by her example and her tireless energy, wit, and grace every day.

 

Subscribe, free, now at www.persimmontree.org

 

Grace Paley