Bakersville poet and disability advocate Marilyn McVicker has released a new volume of poetry dubbed “As for Life” which was awarded an honorable mention in North Carolina’s 2020 Lena Shull Book Contest.
The volume, published by Redhawk Publications earlier this year, is McVicker’s third book. Her most recently published poems have appeared in Kakalak, Kaleidoscope, The Healing Muse, Earth’s Daughters, Speckled Trout Review, Wordgathering, Breath & Shadow, Redheaded Stepchild, Front Porch Review, Red Clay Review and other journals, magazines and periodicals.
McVicker, a retired music educator and therapist, enjoyed a career as a solo performing flutist in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. She began writing during her high school years and published her first poem in the 1980s while attending the Hopkins Writing Seminars and actively participating in the Baltimore Poetry Society.
She held advanced training in aquatics and was employed as aquatics director, instructor and pool maintenance operator at various facilities and summer camps.
She served as a general contractor in the construction of healthy houses until she retired on disability due to her severe primary immune deficiency. She retired to the mountains of North Carolina where she became more involved in her writing career.
“I wanted to write the book I wish I could have found,” McVicker said. “I wanted to give voice to my invisible illness. I wanted to give voice to what it feels like to live with chronic illness.”
McVicker primarily hopes to touch anyone living with chronic illness or those affected by isolation during the pandemic.
“As for Life is full of raw emotion that will enlighten readers about the day-to-day lives of those living with chronic illness,” said Redhawk senior editor Robert Canipe. “McVicker does an outstanding job of pulling her audience into her world, and allowing them to better understand what she and others with chronic illness were going through before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“As for Life” can be purchased at tinyurl.com/AsForLife. Proceeds go to the Immune Deficiency Foundation of Towson, Maryland.
“Marilyn McVicker does not countenance equivocation in herself or in others,” wrote North Carolina 1997-2002 poet laureate Fred Chappell. “This may well be the most candid volume of poetry I ever read. Be prepared.”