Donna Lee Davis

Donna Lee Davis has been writing since childhood. Twice she has self-published poetry volumes: Sheer Poetry in 1981 and Sheer Poetry Revisited in 2007. Individual poems have been reprinted in periodicals. Her short story “Pappy’s Girl” appeared in Carpe Articulum Literary Review (Fall 2010) and was short listed for the Nelson Algren Award (Chicago Tribune) in 2007. With historian William J. Shorter she wrote Here Is the Church: A History of St. Mary Parish (2016). Her first novel was Matter of Discretion (2017), set at the Marine facility in Quantico, Virginia, her work home for 33 years. The novella sequel to Matter of Discretion is contained in Something Else Entirely: Collected Works (2019), along with short stories, poems, and an essay. Her latest books, Genesius (2021), Mea Nico (2023) and Breastplate: A Novel of Saint Patrick (2026) are works of fiction based on the lives and legends of Christian saints: Genesius of Rome, Nicholas of Myra, and Patrick of Ireland. Saint Patrick's own writings are woven throughout Breastplate, giving this work of fiction the ring of truth. "A work of imagination that fills in the gaps between the main elements of Patrick's story."--Father Billy Swan. NOTA BENE to all Latin Scholars: "Mea Nico" is faulty grammar; please chalk it up to artistic license! Follow Donna Lee Davis's blog, Just A Few Lines, on her eponymous website. Happily retired from U.S. Government service, Miss Davis holds the USN Meritorious Civilian Service Medal (1999), which is (or was at the time) a fairly rare award.