Marge Piercy: How Good to Fight Beside You

November's Spectral Collection monthly hand dyed yarn club was inspired by the fiction of Marge Piercy, an author, poet, dedicated cat mom, and activist.

Subscribers received yaupon tea - the only caffeinated plant native to North America and long enjoyed by indigenous people, a cedar oak leaf stitch marker, and an Anti-Capitalist Love Note sticker.

Piercy grew up without much and after some time in the drama of academia decided she just needed to write and live among real society if she really was going to be an influential writer. Her fascinating life is detailed (among biographies of her cats) in her memoir Sleeping with Cats.

I highly recommend picking up Woman On the Edge of Time - it’s a 1976 utopian speculative fiction that imagines a world less about capitalism and more about collaboration. Instead of gender pronouns people use “per” or “person,” resources are shared, sustainable, and reusable, gardening is a real career and dangerous/boring production is automated. It’s also a critical look at psychiatry and mental health “care” in the U.S., especially among Black, indigenous, and people of color populations.

He, She and It is another cyberpunk science fiction option - it won the Arthur C. Clarke award in 1993 and explores gender, AI, environmentalism, and corporate raiders in post-apocalyptic America.

The monthly book and yarn chat will meet Saturday the 28th on Google Meet at 7PM EST - look for the link in your newsletter or on Instagram. If month 832 (well, feels like it, anyway) of COVID has you down and missing faces, bring your WIPs and meet some new crafty comrades!