“This is a book that helps us get better at being human.”
—Lloyd Schwartz, author of He Tells His Mother What He's Working On
“This book is a tribute to all caregivers... and should be obligatory reading for all clinicians working with patients with dementia and their families.”
—Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Medical Director, Deanna and Sidney Wolk Center for Memory Health, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston
Photo credit: Debi Milligan, 2022
About Wendy
Wendy Drexler is a recipient of a 2022 artist fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In addition to Harvest of What Remains, she is the author of three previous collections: Western Motel (Turning Point, 2012), Before There Was Before (Iris Press, 2017), and Notes from the Column of Memory (Terrapin, 2022). Her poems have appeared in Barrow Street, J Journal, Mid-American Review, Nimrod, Pangyrus, Prairie Schooner, The Sun, and The Threepenny Review, among others. She was awarded the 2025 E.E. Cummings prize from the New England Poetry Club. A recipient of the Juror's Prize for Art on the Trails, Southborough, MA, in 2021, Wendy served as poet in residence at New Mission High School in Hyde Park, MA, from 2018-2023, and as programming co-chair for the New England Poetry Club from 2016–2024. She currently serves on the Club's advisory board.
Books
Praise
“This is one of the most moving offerings of poetry I have read in a long time.”
—Regie Gibson, Storms Beneath the Skin
“In Wendy Drexler’s new book, the vividly remembered past and the carefully observed present are on intimate terms, constantly informing each other.”
—Martha Collins, Casualty Reports: Poems
“Wendy Drexler’s Notes from the Columns of Memory is a master class in perception.”
—Donika Kelly, The Renunciations: Poems
“With a remarkable sureness of touch that comes from knowing the contours of words, [Wendy Drexler] renders what being is.”
—Jennifer Barber, editor of Salamander; Works on Paper
“Serious, playful, reverential, staccato, elegiac, timely, historical— and deeply personal—and all of it written in dark, light, and color.”
—John Hanson Mitchell, author of An Eden of Sorts: A Natural History of My Feral Garden
“Wendy Drexler’s Before There Was Before is that rare book that both ranges far, into the worlds of science, nature and art, and moves in close, examining her own particular human experience.”
—Wendy Mnookin, author of Dinner with Emerson
Featured Poem
The Somerville Times a not-so-beautiful pond, but I like the way the leaves form an arch over the water, the sun slanting through, making them glow, and on the far side of the pond we see a swan my husband refers to as “a white fish,” which makes me think more about the solitary swan…
Featured Video
Latest Blog Post
I meditate and while I wish I could say I do so as a daily practice, I’ve been mediating long enough to understand how to bring my body and mind into sync. I don’t always get there, but when I do, it’s truly liberating and often insightful. One of the mantras I say to myself…
