I Have Arrived Before My Words: Autobiographical Writings of Homeless Women

From Booklist This book actually has seven authors: Pugh and Tietjen worked for WritersCorps (an AmeriCorps project), leading writing programs for women in homeless shelters and in prison; coauthors Gayle, Ann, Georgia, Dionne, and Angie participated in those workshops. All seven contribute autobiographical sketches; in addition, either Tietjen or Pugh supplies a commentary on each of the workshop participants' essays, filling in additional information and discussing the ways each woman has coped with her life problems and the nature of her involvement in writing. (There may be more commentary than is actually needed.) Women who have spent too much time on the streets or in mental, physical, or social trouble have stories to tell that most readers have never heard. Appropriate for larger libraries' social science and/or literature collections for this relatively rare content as well as for the insights the essays offer about relationships across lines of race and class in one of the few "new" federal social programs. Mary Carroll From Publishers Weekly Through the federally funded WritersCorps program, Pugh and Tietjen conducted writing workshops for homeless women in Washington, D.C. Here they describe both their experiences and present the autobiographical writings of five such women. Although Pugh and Tietjen are too often under the spell of graduate school parlance, when they simply describe the daily goings-on at their makeshift meetings they are delightful and warm. "Nothing lifts the heart more than seeing these women bent over their notebooks, with no motivation other than the act itself, unselfconsciously following the thread of thoughts they themselves invent. There is head-scratching, murmuring out loud, sudden bolts for a cigarette, humming-what music!" A useful introduction to and discussion of each woman's history and character follow every personal essay. Unfortunately, three of the five homeless women's writings are of little interest. "Ann," for example, is too crazy for words, and instead of evoking admiration or sympathy, readers will pity her meanderings. Pugh muses: "Ann's story waits for her courage to internalize and express her mania as both burden and gift." Readers witness only its burden. The two who make the book worthwhile are "Gayle," an irrepressible, indomitable crack addict ("He slapped me and I slapped him back, and as I turned to run, he pulled out his gun and shot me in the back. As I fell to the ground, I said, God forgive him for he knows not what he's done... I forgave him enough to go back to him and as far as to go and pick out rings to get married"), and Dionne, who writes her clear-headed and sad story as letters from prison. Though uneven and remarkably unrevealing about the state of homelessness, this book should be useful and illuminating to anyone who teaches writing. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Anne, Georgia, Gayle, Dionne, and Angie (not their real names) are five women who either are or have been homeless. Through autobiographical essays, presented here, they tell their life histories in their words?fond memories of childhood and young adulthood merge with descriptions of alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, and physical abuse. The voices are direct, uncontrived, and completely distinctive. Collectively, the essays are compelling, untouched portraits of homeless women as individuals. If there is a fault with this work it is the format. Pugh and Tietjen, the women's teachers at WritersCorps, a division of AmeriCorps, contribute two introductory narratives, a concluding dialog between themselves, plus analytical/discursive pieces following each autobiographical essay. While some background information is necessary, this much detail detracts from the main focus of the book. Recommended for social science and women's collections.?Kate Kelly, Massachusetts General Hosp. Lib., BostonCopyright 1997 Reed Business Infor