Mandy Monath, a North Carolina native, is the author of This Is Like That: Poems and Process, a collection of poems accompanied by observations on creativity and poetic craft. She is interested in what makes a poem a poem. In other genres, her recent children’s book, How Counting Came to Be, tells the story of a cave girl who thinks too much. Her essays have appeared in Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal. Mandy earned her B.A. from Salem College in Classics and her M.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill in Comparative Literature. She lampooned that experience in her romantic comedy, Manifestations of Idiosyncrasy in the Actualization of the Potential Work.

Keith Walker, the author of All That Names Us (Saddle Road Press, 2024), offers this review of Mandy’s work, This Is Like That: Poems and Process.  “So much of what I read these days feels like sophisticated word play without soul.  In these poems I feel the poet’s sensitivity, her open heart receiving the world and her discerning mind carefully turning it over and over to understand the underlying dimensions of what she sees and feels. It’s very powerful and very spiritual.  I really admire these beautiful, resonant poems and will keep reading them and letting them speak to me.”

Sarah Hollar, an Episcopal Priest and Spiritual Director, lives in Charlotte, NC, where she serves a parish, tends relationships with her husband, two children, two stepchildren, their spouses, seven grandchildren, and her wise aging mother. She also has a good number of friends. Deeply curious about the complexity of the human experience and how God is present in that complexity, she invites you to join her as all sorts of folk share their memorable encounters with God.

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