Co-published with SplitLevel Texts Endlessly inclusive, The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters, first published in 1994 and long out of print, evokes the complexity of real persons as it simultaneously reinvents multiple genres: epistle, prose poem, and memoir. Written between 1979 and 1980 while pregnant with her third child, Mayer extends her imaginative letters into meditations for us all on life as it is lived in real time, with its responsibilities and manifold desires. Fierce, lyrical, intimate, and wise, both new and familiar readers, both mothers and non-mothers, will find this book beckoning again and again to offer delicious writing, timely information, consolation, and advice.
About the Author
BERNADETTE MAYER was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1945. A prolific poet, her first book was published when she was twenty-three years old. Now, many texts later, she continues to write progressive poetry from her home in East Nassau, New York.
