In under 100 pages, Anne Harding Woodworth (’65) dives into a conversation on gender fluidity. By looking to a mysterious past and future, in “Gender: Two Novellas in Verse,” she explores secondary universal themes of parenting, companionship and survivorship. Harding Woodworth brings genderfluid people to the forefront of her narrative, starting a conversation on representation and whose stories are worth telling.
When I sat down with Harding Woodworth over Zoom, we discussed her time at Smith College. She thought she would major in classics but ended up falling in love with and majoring in Italian. She has fond memories in Gillett House. When I asked if she wrote during her time at Smith, she laughed, saying, “Never for human consumption.” She started seriously writing poetry when she moved to Greece, releasing her first of seven poetry collections titled “Guide to Greece and Back” in 1978.
Her first published collection of novellas, “Gender: Two Novellas in Verse” begins with “Martin/Martina.” The novella follows “Mother Martina”, an 11th-century monk assigned female at birth, before joining the monastery as a male at age 16. The narrative jumps back and forth through time from childhood to the monastery to parenting their adopted son Dino, an orphan boy.
The protagonist bears many names (Martin, Martina, Saint Martin, Brother Martin, Mother Martina, etc.). While Dino refers to them as “father,” Harding Woodworth explores the fluidity of gender as Martina tries to fulfill both parental roles Martin addresses Dino, “‘Look on me, your father…Look on me, your mother.’”
The second novella, “Aftermath,” describes a destroyed world left only with trees and a small group of survivors. The survivors are divided into three groups: the Weavers, the Fennel Men and the Builders. The Weavers identify as female, the Fennel Men as males and the Builders as “neither female nor male.” The main conflict in the story occurs when one of the asexual Builders goes into labor. The story follows the interactions and dynamics between these groups, particularly after the Builder gives birth.
Harding Woodworth said the inspiration for “Gender: Two Novellas in Verse” came from all the discussion surrounding transness in the current political climate. “[T]here is so much talk today about Trans-ness and sexual differences…Drag is another thing we read about a lot and all these people who don’t want drag shows in Florida. I tried to put myself in the place of someone who wanted to dress like a man and be a man.”
Harding Woodworth feared the reception and potential criticism of the work. “It is always a challenging thing when writing something like this. Would it be criticized heavily by people who don’t see it this way? It was my biggest worry it would not be accepted,” she told me. One of the most rewarding aspects of writing the novellas, however, “[was the feeling] like I got it right.”
