Ms. Magazine’s blog features an interview between Amanda Montei and Wanda Coleman, whose poetry is featured in Feminaissance, Les Figues Press’s new anthology of of women’s experimental essays, poetry and fiction.

In your poem “Rape” [included in Feminaissance] you are unwavering in your raw depiction of a woman’s abuse.  It humanizes the dehumanized, which you’ve said is a specific aim of your writing.

There’s a devilish element in my selection of the crude language and graphic narrative of this poem. Some readers will have a visceral response; they will identify with the victim and actually feel raped. That was my intent. I also wanted to go against the prevailing platitudes about rape that often cause naïve women to get themselves killed—believing that trying to fight off a man who outweighs you by 50 to 200 pounds is the wisest tactic. As a young woman, I never thought twice about going blow-for-blow, toe-to-toe with a man, because I’m a big woman. But after enough busted lips and black eyes, I figured there must be more viable alternatives. Even if you’re exposed to STDs, it is still better “to live to fight another day.”

Read the full interview at Ms. Magazine.