Heather Lanier is the author of the poetry collection, Psalms of Unknowing (Monkfish Publishing 2023) as well as the memoir, Raising a Rare Girl (Penguin Press 2020), a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Her work has appeared in Salon, The Sun, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Longreads, McSweeney's, TIME, and elsewhere. She works as an assistant professor of creative writing at Rowan University, and her TED talk has been viewed three million times and translated into 18 languages.

Books by Heather Lanier:

Other poems on the web by Heather Lanier:
"Two Weeks After A Silent Retreat"
Two poems
"My Family and I Disagree about Politics"
"Psalm for Doctor Normal"
"Loving Thy Right-Wing Neighbor"

Heather Lanier's Website.

Heather Lanier on Twitter.

About Psalms of Unknowing:

"Poignant. Provocative. Downright hilarious. Heather Lanier is an incendiary psalmist and we love her for it."
—Kate Bowler

"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