the scorched earth—by Dora E. McQuaid

The scorched earth, expanded second edition, documents Dora’s journey from victimization to survivorship, through healing from a history of both sexual and domestic violence into empowerment and advocacy as an award-winning poet, activist, speaker and teacher. Poems from this collection are used nationally in outreach and rehabilitation programs for survivors and perpetrators of violence, law enforcement training and college and university courses. First self-published by Dora in 1999, this Expanded, Second hardcover edition, released by Baskerville Publishers in 2015, includes:

• The Foreword by Eve Ensler, Award-winning Playwright of The Vagina Monologues
• the scorched earth: spoken Audio Companion of Dora performing all of the poems in this second edition
• An in-depth, comprehensive Discussion and Study Guide designed for use in a variety of settings to explore the issues of both domestic and sexual violence
• A listing of International Resources for Survivors of both domestic and sexual violence.

“This collection of poems, the scorched earth, is about betrayal and disbelief, about both domestic and sexual violence and the path of one woman’s efforts to come to terms with her experiences of both. It lives in the state somewhere between dream and memory, between what the body knows and what the mind cannot tolerate. It speaks the poetic language of terror, of violation, of heartbreak, and it speaks, ultimately, of transformation, of healing and of hope. the scorched earth is startling and visionary.”

– Eve Ensler, Tony Award-winning Playwright of The Vagina Monologues and Founder of the global V-DAY Foundation and One Billon Rising, from the Foreword she wrote to the scorched earth
Signed copies are available here. 

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