'Sheila Rowbotham has written that the political expression of personal experience lies within the domain of novels and poetry. Seldom has this principle been made more apparent than in the anthology Mother, I’m Rooted. It becomes more and more clear with each one of the [152] poets and 542 pages of the book that this is the unambiguous expression of a social consciousness which cannot be glossed over or dismissed as belonging to a “radical” fringe. For these poets speak from all corners of the female social situation in Australia, and cover the whole spectrum of political consciousness … the anthology includes the whole gamut of women’s experience, married, single, lesbian, heterosexual, mothers, workers housewives. Poets, they speak out in tones of despair, anger, melancholy, loneliness, solidarity, sardonic bitterness, humour, hope and hopelessness. This very diversity and wholesale inclusiveness gives Mother, I’m Rooted, a strength and a unity. A strength from the rawness of the poetry, uncompromised and undiluted by the male publishing regime; and a unity from the common experience of being woman' (87).
Source: Howarth, Peter. 'Out of Nightmares into the Sun' Hecate 1.2 (1975): 87. (Note: Howarth's review gives the number of poets in the collection as 155; the correct number is 152.)
'Kate Jennings (1948-2021) turned her hand to virtually every form of writing, from speeches and journalism to poems, novels, short stories and non-fiction. For many, her value is located beyond the literary world, and she is credited with inaugurating second-wave feminism in Australia with her 1970 speech at the Vietnam moratorium rally on the lawns of Sydney University (Moore 2021: np). As a writer, she took a while longer to make a mark. Her first poetry collection, 'Come to Me My Melancholy Baby', is far from her best work, and it was followed by fifteen years of virtual silence, during which time she developed what Erik Jensen (2017) characterises as her ruthless precision. Her only other poetry collection 'Cats, Dogs and Pitchforks' (1993), gave Jennings a national reputation as a poet; 'Snake' (1996) - a marvel of economy - might be the best work of contemporary Australian fiction not to be shortlisted for a national award but her second novel 'Moral Hazard' (2002), won a number of honours, including the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. In this brief essay, however, I would like to focus, not on these many achievements, but on Jennings's importance as an anthologist.' (Publication abstract)
