The Show Must Go On
A memoir in poems, Mary Warren Foulk's The Show Must Go On centers on the topics of sibling loss and queer identity, including queer parenting. It pays tribute to the author's older brother, Stephen, who died quite tragically at age forty. He was gay, though he remained closeted. In these poems, Foulk navigates his loss and legacy, along with other losses; she attempts to continue their intimate dialogue and connection (an exploration of gay sibling language); and she celebrates his influence and lessons through her own coming out process, and through the redemption and love (queer joy!) she has found in her wife, their children, the community they have created. Several poems address Foulk's pathway(s) to parenthood, including familial/societal reactions, those affirming, those discriminatory, the range and over time. She explores what it means to be a motherless mother, how a family can celebrate the empty seats at the table, the traditions inherited.
Author: Mary Warren Foulk
Publisher: Fernwood Press
Published: 07/15/2025
Pages: 80
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.21lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.21d
ISBN: 9781594981654
About the Author
Foulk, Mary Warren: - A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, Mary Warren Foulk (she/her) has been published in The Hollins Critic, Palette Poetry, Fjords Review, Silkworm, The Gay & Lesbian Review, and North American Review, among other publications. Her work also has appeared in Who's Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers (Soft Skull Press), (M)othering Anthology (Inanna Publications), and My Loves: A Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems (Ghost City Press). She has two award-winning chapbooks, If I Could Write You a Happier Ending (dancing girl press) and Erasures of My Coming Out (Letter) (The Poetry Box). Her newest collection, The Show Must Go On, was a finalist for the 2021 Gival Press Poetry Award, and the Inlandia Institute's 2022 Hillary Gravendyk Prize, and a semi-finalist for the Word Works' 2022 Washington Prize.