Who I am.

I write about the landscape of grief, nature, and the wisdom of fools. The author of four books, my essays, poems, and reviews have been published in over 50 journals, including in the Huffington Post and Colorado Review. I’ve won the River Teeth Nonfiction Book Award, the Chautauqua and Literal Latte’s essay prizes, and my work has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and named a notable by Best American Essays. My account of hiking in Yosemite to deal with my wife’s death, Mountains of Light, was published by the University of Nebraska Press. http://www.markliebenow.com.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

How Grief Began





A few years ago, when my wife died suddenly from a heart condition we didn’t know she had, each night I wrote in my journal about what was going on with grief. I did this to keep me sane, and I did this to force me to deal with my grief instead of hiding it away where it would fester and grow worse. Slowly I began to notice small movements back towards life. Evelyn was in her forties. Her death still seems wrong, and I struggle to accept it. 

Journal Entry 1                    

This morning Ev nudged me awake at 5 a.m. to get up for work, and she went back to sleep. Mid-morning a call comes at work that tells me she has suffered some physical problem, but they don’t know what, only that she is being taken to the hospital.


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