Swimming with Shadows

McKiernan's fourth collection returns to her earlier themes of loss --of her youngest son, of her father, and of the pervasive losses of the homeless population with whom she works. This new collection also addresses political wounds of a bygone America--the bombings of schoolgirls in Alabama the 1960's and the racially charged beating of Rodney King in the 1990's-as it presents poems that address the conflicts of today. Interspersed are poems of love, praise and joy. Ethna McKiernan has been twice awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board grant in poetry. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson Program for Writers. In an earlier life, she was CEO of Irish Books and Media.