An Anthology of Women Writers
from
Saint Louis

The St. Louis poetry scene is on the rise. Whereas just a few years ago open mic nights in the city were rare or rarely attended, recent months have seen a revival of passionate, homegrown poetry circles. Emerging from the underground, these self-supported artists are staging guerrilla readings, organizing slapdash regional tours, and self-publishing local magazines and literary collections. However, in attendance and performance, this burgeoning scene has been largely dominated by males.

We wanted to bring a print forum for female poets to St. Louis --because once we asked around, we found a lot of them. Chicks that “haven’t written in years” with a hundred pages saved on their computers; ladies that hang around public arenas and scribble when no one is looking; women who manage to carve out a niche in the existing structure of spoken word artists. We want cut-ups from shit-tastic mainstream magazines. We want haiku where the word “cunt” is a featured syllable. We want wandering raving image poems that have nothing to do with gender. We want to feature impudent artwork from ladies that know how to push buttons. Knowing that gender can be as flexible as the soles of ten-year chucks, we want to showcase the occasional male's perspective on femininity.

Why Bad Shoe? Because we all have a few in the back of our closet. Dig them out, lace them up, and share.

Ellen Herget & Erin Wiles Co-Editors.

A Note on Gender We feel Bad Shoe is necessary because female writers are pervasively shy in St. Louis. In attendance and performance, the burgeoning underground lit scene has been largely dominated by males. Ladies (and by ladies, we mean anyone who is predominately female-identifying), we want your words: on stage, in print, in our faces. COME OUT. We will listen.