Mary Swander

Mary Swander (born November 5, 1950) is an American poet and memoirist.

Life
A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Swander is a Distinguished Professor of English at Iowa State University.

She is the author of the memoirs The Desert Pilgrim (Ice Cube Press) and Out of this World as well as three books of poetry, Heaven-and-Earth House, Driving the Body Back, and Succession.

Swander has also co-authored a musical, Dear Iowa, with composer Christopher Frank, which has been produced across the Midwest and on Iowa Public Television.

With an endowment from the Iowa Arts Council granted in 2009, she started a poetry website for Iowans called "The Iowa Literary Community"

Recognition
Her awards include the Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant for the Literary Arts, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and the Nation-Discovery Award. In 2009, she was named to a two-year term as the Poet Laureate of Iowa.

Publications
POEMS OTHER
 * Needlepoint, Smokeroot Press (Cutbank, MN), 1977.
 * Succession, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1980.
 * Driving the Body Back, Knopf (New York, NY), 1986.
 * Lost Lake, Owl Creek Press, 1986.
 * Heaven-and-Earth House, Knopf (New York, NY), 1994.
 * Driving the Body Back (play), first produced, 1987.
 * (With Jane Anne Staw) Parsnips in the Snow: Talks with Midwestern Gardeners, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1990.
 * (With Christopher Frank) Dear Iowa (play), first produced in IA, 1991.
 * (With Cornelia Mutel) Land of the Fragile Giants: Landscapes, Environments, and Peoples of the Loess Hills(essays and artwork), University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1994.
 * Out of This World: A Woman's Life among the Amish, Viking (New York, NY), 1995.
 * (Editor) Bloom and Blossom: The Reader's Guide to Gardening, Ecco Press (New York, NY), 1997.
 * (Editor, with Patricia Foster) The Healing Circle: Authors Writing of Recovery, Plume Book (New York, NY), 1998.
 * The Desert Pilgrim: On Route to Mysticism and Miracles, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.