The Hour of My Death: A Journal of the Year After I Died

Marge Piercy’s last work is a testament to her legacy

After revered poet, writer, and feminist icon Marge Piercy dies in a medical emergency in October 2022, only to be resuscitated, she wakes to create her legacy piece. The Hour of My Death: A Journal of the Year After I Died is a personal narrative in the Japanese Zuihitsu literary form that encompasses diary-style entries, recipes, gardening advice and her luminous poetry, all detailing a joyful year of living in her resurrected old age. 

A beloved American progressive activist, feminist, and writer, her seminal work includes Woman On The Edge Of Time; He, She And It, which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and Gone To Soldiers, the New York Times bestseller and sweeping historical novel set during World War II. She has authored fifteen other novels and short story collections, and penned twenty volumes of poetry with poems regularly reprinted in anthologies, on artwork, as song lyrics, and more. Piercy also was a pioneer in the use of gender-neutral pronouns in the 1970s and is a staple in Women’s Studies programs. Marge is now 90 and has completed her last work, The Hour of My Death, with her reflections on a life extended and the grace and wisdom that comes with that.

About the Author

Marge Piercy is a beloved American progressive activist, feminist, and writer. Her work includes Woman On The Edge Of Time; He, She And It, which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and Gone To Soldiers, the New York Times bestseller and sweeping historical novel set during World War II. She has authored fifteen other novels and short story collections, and penned twenty volumes of poetry with poems regularly reprinted in anthologies, on artwork, as song lyrics, and more.

Piercy was a pioneer in the use of gender-neutral pronouns in the 1970s. Her groundbreaking sci-fi novel Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) is frequently taught in feminist and women’s studies programs. In Woman on the Edge of Time, gender pronouns are replaced with “per” as a non-gendered pronoun. The novel depicts a utopian future where gender has become insignificant, and individuals are encouraged to embrace androgyny and social harmony.