The Gift of Glossophobia

Mary Louise Kiernan comes into full voice in her splendid debut collection, The Gift of Glossophobia. Not everyone finds the fear of speaking in public a gift, but here Kiernan makes poetry of how those once silent can be resonantly heard. Her poems bloom like a series of stop time photos, opening with increasing vigor until a powerful, opinionated and sassy speaker appears. Whether she's waiting for a papal blessing that never arrives, describing a young dancer who literally steps out of line, or watching a woman practice speaking while folding laundry, Kiernan's work is poignant, defiant, matter of fact, and lucidly detailed. It takes a lifetime to accrue-and reveal-one's best creative acts, and Kiernan proves it in The Gift of Glossophobia.

-Molly Peacock, author of The Analyst: Poems and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems

Mary Louise Kiernan knows how to lose in order to gain herself. From the first poem, when the narrator tells of being stuck in the mud, she's learning how to get unstuck from what holds her back. She lets go of a beloved quilt, houses, and relationships. In the process of finding "how old will I be when I say what I mean?" she explores her childhood and her Irish heritage. She acknowledges that failed relationships can intensify new love, as "flames flicker best / above a bed of ashes from spent blazes." Balanced between the sensual and the spiritual, this honest book welcomes "Turning forty on a full moon-let the lunacy begin."

-Mary Makofske, author of World Enough, and Time and Traction, winner of the Ashland Poetry Press Snyder Award