Pattie McCarthy has said, “I’ve been in love with the medieval for most of my life.” Her Catholic upbringing led her to a fascination with female saints and mystics: “Even as a child I think I understood that those stories all had to do with power, with women’s bodies, with literacy.” In these paired chapbooks, a collaborative project between eth and Punch Press, she explores the life of medieval mystic Margery Kempe (margerykempething) and late medieval queen-hood (qweyne wifthing), respectively, in sets of 24 sonnets that weave McCarthy’s notes and research with personal reflections and perceptions. As rob mclennan writes, “It would be impossible not to see these two publications as siblings, even as two sections of a larger, book-length work-in progress. Through these, McCarthy researches into and through the terrain of Medieval mystics, women, their labour, tales of mothering, birth and other related topics that have existed throughout the whole of her published work-to-date.” 

The purchase includes both chapbooks, which are available in limited quantities, and printed with letterpress covers.

Return to eth press.