As If Wine Could Pour from Her Nipple

M.J. Kledzik

POETRY

Winner of The Poetry Society of Virginia Book Award for 2017

M. J. Kledzik’s poems have appeared in the Paris Review, Agni, Hotel Amerika, Gargoyle, Margie, Western Humanities Review and elsewhere. She is a 2008 MFA graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, was awarded a fellowship by the Ragdale Foundation, and has won numerous awards, including the Graduate Poetry Award in 2007 and 2008.

She taught ekphrastic poetry workshops in museums, schools, universities and retirement communities. She plans to teach workshops on writing about trauma. She lives in Norfolk, VA with her husband.

"M. J. Kledzik hones poems with an artisan’s precision in her powerful collection, As if Wine Could Pour from Her Nipple. In four tightly woven sections, she addresses heartrending themes, largely centered on parental abuse and its aftermath. At times, she witnesses her life unfolding in the riveting work of acclaimed artists. Relying on the keen insights she’s gleaned from therapy and reflection, Kledzik offers her reader poems that reaffirm one’s ability to overcome life’s challenges and endure."

—Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
Poet Laureate Emerita of Virginia, 2006-2008 Winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz award for The Embrace.