gracefully, it has the effect of bringing ‘the two cultures’ into a rare state of peaceful coexistence.” On feminism McCullough dislikes the term "feminist," and has criticized the gender exclusivity espoused by certain extreme elements in the organized women's movement: Many of the men I know who call themselves feminists—some of whom are men I love also exhibit deep self-loathing over their own masculinity because of the shame they have acquired about maleness. How can I embrace something that turns people I love into perpetrators, tyrants, and villains? Yes. It is easy in this culture to forget that women around the world are killed every day, are sold into slavery, are ignored, demeaned, tortured because they are seen as less than human. This is utterly deplorable; its beyond imagining, and yet it is true. But to say that men are evil based on their gender is as single-minded, and wrongheaded in my view, as the worldview that doesn't allow women to be people. Works Full-length poetry collections The Dancing Bear. Open Book Press, 2006. What Men Want: Poems. Gambier, OH: XOXOX Press, 2008. Speech Acts: Poems. Aspinwall, PA: Black Lawrence Press, 2010. Panic. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2011. Rigger Death & Hoist Another. Pittsburgh, PA: Black Lawrence Press, 2013. Jersey Mercy. Pittsburgh, PA: Black Lawrence Press, 2016. The Wild Night Dress. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2017. Women & Other Hostages. Pittsburgh, PA: Black Lawrence press, 2021. Chapbooks and other projects Elephant Anger. Mudlark, 2007. —prose poems Women and Other Hostages. Amsterdam Press, 2010. —poetry Ripple & Snap. ELJ Publications, 2013. —short novella and prose poems The Smashing House. ELJ Publications, 2013. —fiction The Room and the World: Essays on the Poet Stephen Dunn. (editor) Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013. Shutters:Voices:Wind. ELJ Publications, 2014. —linked monologues from women around the world A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race. (editor) University of George Press, 2015. Notes and references http://www.blacklawrence.com/jersey-mercy/ External links Laura McCullough website 1960 births Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey American women poets 21st-century American poets Poets from New Jersey Goddard College alumni Living people Stockton University alumni Brookdale Community College faculty 21st-century American women writers American women academics