I was very excited to receive a copy of The Red House: An Anthology of Genre and Speculative Poetry in the mail this morning. One of my poems about Anna Morandi Manzolini is inside! I read The Lady Anatomist by Rebecca Messbarger a couple years ago, and it inspired a few poems about this extraordinary woman. She studied anatomy in Italy in the 18th century–one of very few women to do so! Studying anatomy back then meant dissecting a LOT of cadavers and, in her case, recreating them (or various body parts) out of wax. She was exceptionally skilled at this, and continued to lecture and dissect long after her husband (also an anatomist) died, which was quite unusual for the time.
If you would like to purchase a copy of this anthology, you can do so on the Cypress Press website. I’m very grateful to Cypress Press and editor Anton Pooles for providing a home for this odd little poem.
Courtney Bates-Hardy 