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Saint Monica
Mary Biddinger's poetry collection Saint Monica reinvents the saint as an everyday girl coming of age in the rust belt Midwest. These poems explore temptation, transgression, and heavenly presences in a landscape that is far from holy.
- GenresPoetry
40 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2011
64 people want to read
About the author
Mary Biddinger
16 books317 followersMary Biddinger is a poet and flash fiction writer who lives in Akron, Ohio. Her novella-in-flash, The Girl with the Black Lipstick, was published by Black Lawrence Press in July 2025. She is co-editor, with Julie Brooks Barbour, of A Mollusk Without a Shell: Essays on Self-Care for Writers (University of Akron Press, 2024). Biddinger teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Akron and in the NEOMFA program.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 25, 2011
Through the persona of Saint Monica and set in the backdrop of the Rust Belt midwest, Mary Biddinger explores the dilemmas and desires of today's women. Filled with both innocent longing and unflinching violence, this chapbook explores the place of today's woman in poetic verse and song. One of the best collections I have read this year!
October 17, 2012
I absolutely adore this book. I gobbled the poems up in one day, as if they were a French strawberry crepe. The poems are so endearing and unique. Coming from a Roman Catholic (highly conservative) Midwest family, I can relate to the speaker so well. All of the poems are polished and show the true talent of author Mary Biddinger.
July 3, 2011
"the child of those tears shall never perish"
The much admired and published poet Mary Biddinger has in many ways reinvented poetic communication in her most recent collection from Black Lawrence Press, SAINT MONICA. Biddinger has usurped the persona of that most humble of saints, Saint Monica, the patron saint of abuse victims, alcoholics, alcoholism, difficult marriages, disappointing children, homemakers, housewives, married women, mothers, victims of adultery, victims of unfaithfulness, victims of verbal abuse, widows and wives. According to the Catholic Church the following is a Prayer to Saint Monica: 'Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.'
With a matrix such as this to draw upon, Mary Biddinger speaks from her background in Ohio with a distinct Midwestern voice as she recreates 'little Monicas' who enter the world of adult transgressions and yearnings and fears and at times impudent participation in her own slightly disdainful refusal to accept limitations. She speaks with a voice at all times honest in its appealing nature and introduces us to certain important friends who represent her exploration of forbidden desires: she never loses sight of the humor that may be evident or occult in the diary-like life of a girl who is living in that most treasurable region of Americana.
SAINT MONICA GIVES IT UP
The say chastity is a gift,
like an extra thumb.
But they have never seen
Kevin McMillan bare
to the waist in an apple tree
as Monica did
one Wednesday afternoon
before dance class.
The bun in her hair nearly
unraveled itself.
All the birds around her
dipped to the ground
in search of stray fire ants.
Still, she clung
to her Saint Christopher
medal, taped up
more kitten posters in her
school locker,
pounded the bread dough
a little bit harder.
Twenty years later now
and she still sees
him: grinding cross-sections
of a fallen oak, or
staggering across a field to her
on pink moments
before the alarm clock's blare.
Biddenger's poems vary in layout from the usual poetic form as above to those that fill equally justified pages that read like a short story. But always there is a brilliance of idea matched by a grasp of radiant language that makes us smile, remember, and re-live moments like Saint Monica experiences. Biddinger is a poet of people. You will never forget her gifts after stepping inside SAINT MONICA.
Grady Harp
The much admired and published poet Mary Biddinger has in many ways reinvented poetic communication in her most recent collection from Black Lawrence Press, SAINT MONICA. Biddinger has usurped the persona of that most humble of saints, Saint Monica, the patron saint of abuse victims, alcoholics, alcoholism, difficult marriages, disappointing children, homemakers, housewives, married women, mothers, victims of adultery, victims of unfaithfulness, victims of verbal abuse, widows and wives. According to the Catholic Church the following is a Prayer to Saint Monica: 'Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.'
With a matrix such as this to draw upon, Mary Biddinger speaks from her background in Ohio with a distinct Midwestern voice as she recreates 'little Monicas' who enter the world of adult transgressions and yearnings and fears and at times impudent participation in her own slightly disdainful refusal to accept limitations. She speaks with a voice at all times honest in its appealing nature and introduces us to certain important friends who represent her exploration of forbidden desires: she never loses sight of the humor that may be evident or occult in the diary-like life of a girl who is living in that most treasurable region of Americana.
SAINT MONICA GIVES IT UP
The say chastity is a gift,
like an extra thumb.
But they have never seen
Kevin McMillan bare
to the waist in an apple tree
as Monica did
one Wednesday afternoon
before dance class.
The bun in her hair nearly
unraveled itself.
All the birds around her
dipped to the ground
in search of stray fire ants.
Still, she clung
to her Saint Christopher
medal, taped up
more kitten posters in her
school locker,
pounded the bread dough
a little bit harder.
Twenty years later now
and she still sees
him: grinding cross-sections
of a fallen oak, or
staggering across a field to her
on pink moments
before the alarm clock's blare.
Biddenger's poems vary in layout from the usual poetic form as above to those that fill equally justified pages that read like a short story. But always there is a brilliance of idea matched by a grasp of radiant language that makes us smile, remember, and re-live moments like Saint Monica experiences. Biddinger is a poet of people. You will never forget her gifts after stepping inside SAINT MONICA.
Grady Harp
January 25, 2012
Mary Biddinger, Saint Monica (Black Lawrence Press, 2011)
I'm writing this early in 2012, so I can say it with confidence: Saint Monica was the single best book I read in 2011 (final count: 272, with this being the third of those books to get five stars), not only living up to but surpassing the promise of Prairie Fever. From first page (“The owls would like to unwrap//her, as owls do, always looking/for the next loose shutter, the goldfinch/bathing in a pile of spilled parmesan//in the convenience store parking lot.”) to last (“They lived in Michigan,//where nothing ever changed. But when/would the pint glass shatter in her hand,/just like the woman on the screen, limp/ponytail snaking around her shoulders?”), this is poetry that tries, and not once fails, to surprise and delight with unexpected imagery, spot-on word choice, and a gaze that never leaves the bigger picture even when it's focused on the smallest image. I quoted that goldfinch image on facebook right after I read it, saying “I had to remember how to breathe.” There's a great deal of that to be found in this book, which should be on the shelf of not only every reader of poetry, but every reader period. *****
I'm writing this early in 2012, so I can say it with confidence: Saint Monica was the single best book I read in 2011 (final count: 272, with this being the third of those books to get five stars), not only living up to but surpassing the promise of Prairie Fever. From first page (“The owls would like to unwrap//her, as owls do, always looking/for the next loose shutter, the goldfinch/bathing in a pile of spilled parmesan//in the convenience store parking lot.”) to last (“They lived in Michigan,//where nothing ever changed. But when/would the pint glass shatter in her hand,/just like the woman on the screen, limp/ponytail snaking around her shoulders?”), this is poetry that tries, and not once fails, to surprise and delight with unexpected imagery, spot-on word choice, and a gaze that never leaves the bigger picture even when it's focused on the smallest image. I quoted that goldfinch image on facebook right after I read it, saying “I had to remember how to breathe.” There's a great deal of that to be found in this book, which should be on the shelf of not only every reader of poetry, but every reader period. *****
August 18, 2011
A spectactular collection, if a bit short. The book is filled with lovely poems with lots of substance, many of which took me back to my days growing up in Catholic school. Vivid imagry and voice, smart tone. These poems will stand up to many rereadings.
May 17, 2012
This chapbook is fantastic. Really excellent work.
Read my full review, published by Rain Taxi Review of Books: http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2012sp...
Read my full review, published by Rain Taxi Review of Books: http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2012sp...
March 23, 2012
My review of Mary Biddinger's Saint Monica can be found in Issue 3 of Glint Literary Journal:
http://www.glintliteraryjournal.com/c...
July 3, 2016
I know that it was a book of poems but I kind of barely knew what I was reading and I am indifferent about it. Good thing this was only for class.
June 5, 2014
A beautiful, tight collection of poems featuring the adventures of Biddinger's Saint Monica, patron saint of abuse victims, alcoholics, and other unfortunate souls. This collection holds together beautifully.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews