Description
WOMAN AS COMMUNION is a chapbook that reckons with but is not resigned to, the patriarchal past and present of the poet’s Christian faith. Through poems that inhabit the experiences of both biblical women and the poet herself, Woman as Communion imagines fullness and complexity into narratives that don't always make room for either; relishes honesty and creativity in spiritual expression; and claims holiness in women’s stories, friendships, and bodies.
"Woman as Communion is a powerful collection of poetry that gives voice to women of scripture, and ultimately reimagines the relationship between the self and faith. Megan McDermott fills these pages with relatable emotional moments, such as in the poem ‘To Adam,’ when Eve remembers when they ‘[stayed] up all night talking, / bright with the hope exclusive to those / who don’t yet know the need for it.’ Every poem in this book is superbly crafted and exhilarating to read—the conclusion of each one manages to land with both feet planted squarely in the part of me that yearns for meaning. I found myself returning to these poems again and again." —Catherine Weiss, author of Wolf Girls vs. Horse Girls
"Megan McDermott’s Woman as Communion extends the tradition of poetic reading & exegesis of sacred texts through a range of tones: sensual, irreverent, searching, awe-struck, and queer-feminist critique. The poems emerge out of a deeply sympathetic imagining of the human characters, and the impossible circumstances through which the Divine reveals its own story: ‘the mess / of Mother and Messiah,’ and through these acts of sympathy the poems open out as expressions of eros, questioning, rebuke, pastoral care, and communion within the questing life of faith." —Jeffrey Pethybridge, author of Striven, the Bright Treatise and director of Summer Writing Program at Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
Poetry. LGBTQ+ Studies. Women's Studies.
Author Bio
Megan McDermott is a poet and Episcopal priest living in Western Massachusetts. She writes about faith, women in Scripture, purity culture baggage, relationships, and more. She is the author of two chapbooks: Prayer Book for Contemporary Dating, available from Ethel Zine and Micro-Press, and WOMAN AS COMMUNION, available from Game Over Books. Her first full-length poetry collection, Jesus Merch: A Catalog in Poems, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press in late February 2023. Megan's poems have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Christian Century, Rust + Moth, Rogue Agent Journal, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith, and The Cresset. She is also a poetry reader for one of her favorite online lit journals, Psaltery & Lyre.
Author City: AMHERST, MA USA