Set amidst America’s uneven economic recovery, Amarylis Douglas provides a poetry of witness to the epidemic of homelessness. These poems are individual and unforgettable portraits of Americans we don’t want to see, and for whom the word recovery hasn’t applied.
Amarylis Douglas is originally from the Berkshires, in western Massachusetts. She has lived for forty years on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where she brought up her three children and taught in the island schools. She also lived in Portland, Oregon for ten years, where she worked in the Title One program for Portland Public Schools. She has been in many writing groups in all three areas, most recently The Martha’s Vineyard Poets’ Collective. Now back, based on the island, she returns often to spend time in Portland. Her poetry was first published in Our Place, A Selection of New England Poets, and also in “The Vineyard Gazette” and “The Martha’s Vineyard Times.”