In these exquisite, finely wrought sonnets-twenty jewel-like portraits of famous female figures-Elizabeth Hodges plumbs the depths of a dazzling range of feeling, from the emotional torrents of rage and fear to the keenly observed sensations of artistic creation and enchantment. A meditation on themes of female oppression and empowerment, Blood Sonnets incarnates and transforms the voices of twenty female figures, from the famous and infamous (Catherine the Great; Lizzie Borden) to the mythic and mysterious (Athena; Jane Doe), bringing to life a panoply of intense experience in crisp, vivid miniature. By turns fierce, heartfelt, sly, and haunting, these poems illuminate as they interrogate, and offer a fresh, nuanced perspective on history, a woman's place, and the human condition itself.