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The poems of Dear October chronicle the evolution of the natural world and a daughter caring for her mother during the last year of her life. Months of the final year act as the scaffolding for the collection, as they reflect on the twelve moons. The spirit of home, family, and mother-daughter relationship intertwine with the diversity of culture and ecology in northern New Mexico. Dear October is a gathering of poems on the intimacy of caring for a dying parent at home, while being acutely aware of the progression of time and the natural world. The poems were often the way the author prepared for loss—written through events, memory, landscape, myth, and dreams. The writing regards a childhood in Oklahoma but mostly celebrates the diverse landscape and cultures of New Mexico.

About Mary Morris:

Mary was the recipient of the Rita Dove Award and the New Mexico Discovery Award. She recently won the 2019 Western Humanities Review Mountain West Prize, judged by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and has been nominated for Best Microfiction 2020. She was invited to read her work at the Library of Congress for the program “The Poet and the Poem,” which consequently aired on National Public Radio.

Texas Review Press, a member of Texas A&M University Consortium, TAMU, published her debut book of poetry, Enter Water, Swimmer, in the spring of 2018. A second book, Dear October, was published in July 2020. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Mary also studied poetry at Long Island University and received a full scholarship at the Southwest Literary Foundation. Mary Morris's poems appear in Poetry, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, Boulevard, The Columbia Review, Arts & Letters, The Massachusetts Review, Rattle, and numerous other literary journals.

Mary lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, writes book reviews, and has taught poetry privately and in schools.

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Mary Morris Dear October (Poems)

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