Marilyn McVicker

Marilyn published her first poem in 1980. Since then, she has published five books, numerous poems, essays, and articles, in a wide variety of publications.

Marilyn's full-length volume of poetry, AS FOR LIFE: A MEMOIR EXPLORING THE ISOLATION & LOSS OF CHRONIC ILLNESS, received an honorable mention in North Carolina Poetry Society's 2020 Lena Shull Book Contest. Marilyn's candid voice expresses the range of exhilaration and suffering of living with a life-long chronic illness.

LONG FIELD HOLLOW, a chapbook of poetry, published in 2023, is Marilyn's story of re-locating to and living in a small mountain cove. These 29 poems offer an intimate glimpse into Marilyn's environment and daily life. It is a love story to a location that provides both challenge and triumph.

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Her most recent book, I STILL SING YOUR LULLABIES: A MOTHER'S LOVE & LOSS, is a dramatic story of a mother and her children separated by legal maneuvers that protected the economic interests of fathers. This oppression, and its fallout, is as pertinent today, as it was in the 1990s, when this story took place.

Before her retirement, Marilyn was a performing flutist and music educator. Throughout Marilyn's life, writing has been her passion and creative center. Her life-long fascination with words and self-expression stems from her musicianship, and her family's association with Deaf culture and sign-language, to summon the words and establish the form of her work.