Barbara Marie Minney - A Woman in Progress

2024, Barbara Marie Minney, English, Interview,

Full title: "A Woman in Progress" by Barbara Marie Minney.

Barbara Marie Minney’s A Woman in Progress is not simply a poetry collection, it is a radiant, defiant, and deeply human memoir-in-verse that speaks to transformation, faith, pain, and joy with fearless authenticity. Winner of the 2024 American Fiction Award for Poetry Chapbook and an Eric Hoffer Award nominee, this chapbook reveals the tender interior of a poet who has walked through fire and emerged, not unscarred, but empowered. 

 

Minney’s fourth collection may be slim in size, but it contains worlds, worlds shaped by courage, longing, fierce love, and a hard-earned sense of self. Minney is a seventh-generation Appalachian, a retired attorney, and a proud transgender woman who began her transition at the age of sixty-three after decades of repression. As she shared in her candid interview with Heroines of My Life, poetry became her means of survival and resistance, “a way to document and process my thoughts, feelings, struggles, and triumphs.” A Woman in Progress charts the earliest years of that journey, unfolding like a spiritual testimony, an act of prayer, and a series of intimate conversations with the self and the reader.

From the opening poem, “No Experience Needed,” Minney offers us a glimpse into her reclamation of self, defying the notion that a woman must earn her femininity through societal approval or arbitrary milestones. Here and throughout the collection, her poetry exudes a quiet power, as described by U.S. Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs: “sensitive and stirring, its speaker demonstrating quiet power in the face of formidable challenges.” Minney doesn’t roar, but she does not whisper either. Her voice is steady, thoughtful, and unwavering. In poems like “Rainbow on the Bathroom Rug: Akron Pride,” we witness the profound joy of being seen, even if momentarily, in a world that too often demands invisibility from transgender people. “A chance to rejoice in my own uniqueness,” she writes, and in that moment, her words become a benediction for anyone who has struggled to feel like they belong. 

 

As M. Lynne Squires writes, “the entirety of the collection speaks to a life running headlong into recognizing, accepting, and embracing her uniqueness.” There’s an emotional honesty in these poems that is striking, Minney does not sanitize her journey for comfort. Instead, she invites us into the rawness of pain and the glow of transformation. Poet Bonnie Proudfoot aptly observes that “the cultural becomes personal,” and that her poetry is grounded “in pain and love, but also in defiance and power.” The title poem, “A Woman in Progress,” is a stunning erasure piece that interrogates myths of femininity and masculinity, ultimately affirming Minney’s agency in the face of erasure. “I am in charge. I am the storm,” she declares, reminding us of Adrienne Rich’s call to “see the damage that was done / and the treasures that prevail.”

Another standout element is Minney’s ability to weave the spiritual into the everyday. Her Christian faith is not a contradiction to her identity, but a part of her journey toward wholeness. In a political and religious climate that often positions queerness as antithetical to faith, Minney’s poetry is nothing short of revolutionary. She writes not for validation but from a deep well of personal truth. As she told Heroines of My Life, “My poetry is a challenge to stereotypical beliefs... a challenge to unapologetically and proudly accept and love yourself for who you are.” That fusion of personal growth and spiritual reconciliation makes A Woman in Progress especially resonant. It is a book not just about gender, but about healing, self-worth, and resilience. 

 

June Gervais, author of Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair, notes this beautifully: “Minney hides neither her flaws nor her radiance in this portrait of a trans woman for whom ‘progress’ means refusing to skip over darkness on her way to wholeness.” There is also an intimacy to these poems, a lyrical grace that feels like we are being entrusted with something sacred. In her poems to her wife, the tenderness is palpable. “Beauty out of chaos / creating our own divine presence,” she writes, words that not only describe her love but her poetic mission. The chapbook's scope is wide yet deeply personal, a balance that many poets struggle to achieve. 

 

Doc Janning calls it “a MUST READ for those who wish to have a greater understanding,” and he’s right. For readers who have never known what it means to be transgender, this book is a window into an experience of gender that is rarely rendered with such honesty and beauty. And for those who are transgender or questioning, Minney’s work feels like a warm hand reaching out to say: You are not alone. In a world too eager to deny the humanity of transgender people, A Woman in Progress is both resistance and revelation. It’s a reminder that the act of telling one’s truth, however raw, however hard-won, is an act of progress in itself. Barbara Marie Minney is not just a woman in progress, she is a poet of fierce grace and unwavering truth. This is her best work yet. And we are all better for having read it.

Available via Amazon

and Heroines of My Life

Photo via Heroines of My Life

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