Department of Elegy - Paperback

by Mary Biddinger (Author)

Part post-punk ghost story, part Gen-X pastoral, Mary Biddinger's poetry collection Department of Elegy conjures dim nightclubs, churning lakes, and vacant Midwestern lots, meditating on moments of lost connection. With the afterlife looming like fringe around the edges of this book, Biddinger constructs a view of heaven as strange as the world left behind. These poems escort us from forest to dance floor, bathtub to breakwater, memory into present.

Author Biography

Mary Biddinger's most recent poetry collection is Department of Elegy (Black Lawrence Press, 2022). She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the Cleveland Arts Prize, National Endowment for the Arts, and Ohio Arts Council. Her flash fiction novella titled The Girl with the Black Lipstick will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2025. She teaches creative writing at the University of Akron and in the NEOMFA program.