women ’ s persecuted history in ‘ The Witch House at Salem : Winter ’ and how witchcraft has since been used to reassert bodily agency in ‘ Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods ’, before recognising the healing hope of ‘ How to Break a Curse ’. However , the work to reclaim the witch is new , this anthology is a beginning that envisions how we might transform from passive witnesses of the witch ’ s suffering into active liberators , as each poem gradually reveals the woman under the witch ’ s hat .
Previous anthologies concerning the witch have lacked appreciation for women ’ s writing , as the witch has appeared in primarily broad , unnuanced terms . Some , such as Peter Haining ’ s The Witchcraft Reader , appear to only include stories by men , ignoring the witch ’ s gendered context , whilst others only considered the witch ’ s fantastical characteristics , her penchant for magic taking precedence