Inside the Core, Mary Grace Mangano publishes a book

Mary Grace Mangano, Core teacher and author.

Inside the Core this week, we are celebrating the recent publication by one of our new adjunct faculty members, Mary Grace Mangano. The book is Homage to Søren Kierkegaard: Poems in Memory of Reverend Ronald Marshall (Wiseblood Books, October, 2023), co-edited with the poet Dana Gioia. Here is a link for the book from the publisher’s website: Homage to Søren Kierkegaard: Poems in Memory of Reverend Ronald Marshall: PRE-ORDER (wisebloodbooks.com).

As described on the website, “Kierkegaard served as muse for the poems here gathered. When Dappled Things [poetry journal] launched a major contest, poets were presented with Kierkegaardian paradoxes, and in response to these theological provocations an abundance of verses appeared from around the country. Judges Dana Gioia and Mary Grace Mangano selected these works from over two hundred submissions.” Though the poems themselves were inspired by Kierkegaard, the book is dedicated to a Lutheran minister, Rev. Marshall, who died in 2021. According to The West Seattle Blog, which tells of his life and announced his death, Rev. Marshall was a wonderful community organizer and selfless volunteer, while, among other things, a writer about Kierkegaard.

Mary Grace has taught courses on religion and literature in several major cities, and now teaches in the Core at Seton Hall. She earned her BA from Villanova University, and went on to attend the University of Notre Dame, earning a Master’s of Science in Management and a Master’s in Education through the Alliance for Catholic Education. Most recently, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston as an inaugural Gioia Family Fellowship recipient. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Windhover, Modern Age, Reformed Journal, Ekstasis, and Orchards Poetry Journal. Her reviews and essays have appeared in America, Dappled Things, Fare Forward, Church Life Journal, and Front Porch Republic, among others. Her book, co-edited with a major American poet, Dana Gioia, is an exciting event for her and us in the Core. We look forward to Mary Grace presenting on this book in one of our Scholars’ Forum events in the spring semester.