Visions: The Collected Poems of Patricia Doherty

Patricia Doherty looked deeply into people, nature, events, and herself. She knew whether beauty was intrinsic or superficial, and understood the complexities and contraditions of human nature, which she chronicled in the Dismas Shaunnesey Mysteries and Visitations of Grace. In her poems she reflected on life: the joys, the sorrows, the humor, the irony, the goals, the frustrations, and looked to make sense of them. They surprise us, as they surprised her, with their glimpses into and beyond our world.

Patricia Doherty has been writing sporadically since her childhood in Washington, D.C. In 1966, however, her husband Tony gave her a copy of James Agee's masterpiece, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which awakened a desire to write seriously. Eleven years later Pat slammed a mystery story shut in despair, declaring she could write better herself. Her husband challenged her to do it. The result was The Face of Evil, the first novel in the Dismas Shaunessey mystery series, which continues with The Sins of Moffat Square and Of Murder and Marigolds. Visitations of Grace, her collection of short stories based on minor characters in the Gospels, has received critical praise. She's also collaborated with Olympic pole vaulting champion Don Bragg on A Chance to Dare: The Don Bragg Story, his memoirs, as well as Kamp Olympik, an account of his summer camp for disadvantaged inner-city kids. In addition to interviews and feature articles for an opera newsletter, she's written compact disc liner notes, a novella, poetry, and children's stories. When her composer husband received a commission from the Contra Costa Children's Chorus for a major piece for its 30th anniversary season, Pat provided the text "My Voice," which is her favorite work.