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Ms. Aligned bookcover

Ms. Aligned: Women Writing About Men attempts to represent men through works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and art created by women. Funded by the SEED IDEAS office of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the anthology is edited by Pat Matsueda and Sheyene Foster Heller and features the literary and visual art of twenty women.

Contributors to Ms. Aligned include five University of Hawaiʻi graduates: Naomi Long Eagleson, Adele Ne Jame, Angela Nishimoto, Phyllis Gray Young and Matsueda. Ne Jame, Nishimoto and Young received both their undergraduate and master’s degrees at The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Ne Jame is a professor of English at Hawaiʻi Pacific University and Nishimoto a lecturer in botany at Leeward Community College. Young’s selection, “Joaquim,” is from her master’s thesis, a novel based in part on the research of her husband, Richard Young, professor emeritus in oceanography. Mary Archer, a senior in English at UH Mānoa, also has work in Ms.. Aligned: a suite of poems that memorialize the teaching of Robert McHenry, former UH Mānoa English professor.

Laura Lyons (former chair of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa English department and now CLLL interim dean) says of the book’s focus, “We often discuss the problems that attend male writers’ attempts to capture women and feminine consciousness, but little focus has been given when the writing takes the reverse trajectory. For this reason, I expect that this anthology will be of great use to those in women’s and gender studies, creative writing and English courses more generally. In addition, many of the pieces reveal the intersectionality of gender with race and class, so the anthology will also be of use to faculty and students in American and ethnic studies programs as well.”

Samrat Upadhyay (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa English Ph.D., 1999) says of the book, “The poems and stories and conversations in Ms. Aligned pay homage to the complex relationships between men and women. The female perspectives presented here—male creations/female creators—dissect, prod, query, challenge, validate, negotiate, and, ultimately, emancipate the gender boundaries that we otherwise take for granted.”

Get Ms. Aligned

Ms. Aligned is available as a PDF file from Lulu.com for $4.99. In fall 2015, SEED IDEAS awarded the project $2,500 to cover production and editorial expenses.

For more information, please visit https://msaligned2015.wordpress.com/.

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