Fordham University Gives Soapbox to Atheist Poet

Poets Out Loud Opens Fall Season with a Feminist Twist

Fordham University’s Poets Out Loud series, which features readings by noted and emerging poets from around the country, launched its fall 2008 season on Sept. 15 with a reading by feminist poet and critic Alicia Ostriker.

Although known as one of the eminent poets of her generation, Ostriker told the audience that she was late in joining the feminist movement of the 1970s.

"I wanted to be a part of it, but I had children," she explained. "In that time, you either had babies or books, and I wanted both."

She added, "You don’t decide to become a feminist. If you do, you’re not a real one."

Link to the Fordham press release (here)

A quote by Alicia Ostriker

I am agnostic as regards heaven. I was raised a third-generation atheist socialist Jew. When my grandfather died, when I was nine, I prayed every night, “Dear God, in case you exist, please let my grandfather into heaven, even though he didn’t believe in you, because he was a good man.” But you can see that John Lennon has a point. Much more killing has been done by people who believed in heaven than by those who didn’t.

Link (here)