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.

Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2025

The Spaces Between Knowing and Understanding


 review of Renée M. Sgroi, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding, Guernica Editions, Toronto, 2024

Connecting grief with nature resonates with me because after my wife Evelyn died in her 40s I went camping in Yosemite throughout the two years after, and nature taught me how to take in and understand my grief. Renée M. Sgroi also pairs nature with grief in her elegant and evocative book of poetry. She finds parallel stories between the lives of people and the lives of plants and animals of wanting, loneliness, loss, and being bound together.