Lanier, Heather: Psalms of Unknowing

Monkfish Book Publishing, paperback

Publication Date: September 12, 2023

Publisher Marketing: Writing at the intersections of spirituality, motherhood, and feminism, Lanier reveals the sacred in our ordinary lives.

"Poignant. Provocative. Downright hilarious. Heather Lanier is an incendiary psalmist and we love her for it." --Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved and Duke University professor

"When a book begins 'topless at the office/like a scandal, ' you know the poems it contains will push against easy or sweet received narratives about what it means to be a mother and a person of faith. (She's 'Pumping Milk, ' the poem's title clarifies!) These poems reinvent the trinity, beginning with 'the name of the mother, ' and reimagine the Virgin Mary as a present-day pregnant woman scolded by What to Expect into counting protein grams and giving up tuna. By turns tender and sharply observant, Psalms of Unknowing calls us to consider the fragility of the body, the afterlife of grief, and the consolation afforded by love." --Nancy Reddy, author of Pocket Universe

How do we reconcile our love with our grief? Seek peace in a violent world? Find compassion for our rightwing neighbors? Psalms of Unknowing challenges the patriarchy with an eye on contemporary issues such as gun violence, household divisions of labor, and parenting in an uncertain world.