Former Marion resident Ann E. Wallace will read at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library on Saturday, June 1, at 2:00 pm from her latest poetry collection, “Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul.”
Ann E. Wallace, PhD, is the 2023-24 Poet Laureate of Jersey City, New Jersey. As a longtime survivor of ovarian cancer, a woman with multiple sclerosis and one of the nation’s first Long Covid patients, she has lived and written through illness for 30 years. Pain, disability and disease—as well as hope and resilience—have inspired and informed her work as a poet, memoirist, patient advocate and scholar. Her new poetry collection “Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul”(Kelsay Books, 2024) was written over three years, beginning when Wallace was first sick with severe acute COVID and following her teenage daughters’ and her long journey of recovery.
Wallace is host and producer of The Wildstory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants by the Native Plant Society of New Jersey and Professor of English at New Jersey City University.
A reception and book signing will follow Dr. Wallace’s reading. The program is part of the Purrington Events Series. Everyone is invited to attend. The library is located at 7 Barstow Street in Mattapoisett and is fully accessible.