Hypatia's Wake

"Hypatia?s Wake is a gorgeous and indispensable recalibration of Hypatia of Alexandria?s consummate genius. As always, Susan Andrews Grace?s poetry is fiercely intelligent with biting dashes of wit and playfulness. Andrews Grace loosens the historical stranglehold on Hypatia?s legacy and revitalizes this important thinker in one dazzling, 'vastly feminine cosmos.'"
—Sylvia Legris, author of Garden Physic and Nerve Squall

"'Language lost, signs buried, maps ript'—such is the trace, in history, of the unspoken and unspeakable. For Susan Andrews Grace, this is the woman and her mother. In composing Hypatia?s Wake, the poet performs the feminist work of retrieving and sifting through the fragments that remain of Hypatia of Alexandria, Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer—who in 415 AD was murdered (flayed, dismembered, and burned) by a mob of Christian monks. Andrews Grace brings Hypatia back from dereliction, composing her scattered parts into a beautiful, complex portrait of the philosopher-teacher. History is cut and woven with speculation; patriarchal 'knots' and 'double binds' are teased out. The 'wake' (a vigil for the dead) floats in the long 'wake' of Hypatia?s death. In terms of style, Andrews Grace takes great care with the page, with spacing and indentation, delighting the reading eye. Here, she has written such elegant poems—recalling, for me, the grave style and timeless matter of H.D.?s later poetry."
—Hilary Clark