An exquisite memoir of a life saved by poetry."This is a portrait of the artist, narrated by a priest and a poet and a gay man with tenderness and searing honesty. Spencer Reece weaves the poetry he loves into how he has lived, the poetry as solace and relief, as confirmation and rescue, as redemption." —Colm ToíbínThe Secret Gospel of Mark is a powerful dynamo of a story that delicately weaves the author's experiences with an appreciation ...

In a recent double fiction issue, The New Yorker devoted the entire back page to a single poem, "The Clerk's Tale," by Spencer Reece. The poet who drew such unusual attention has a surprising background: for many years he has worked for Brooks Brothers, a fact that lends particular nuance to the title of his collection. The Clerk's Tale pays homage not only to Chaucer but to the clerks' brotherhood of service in the mall, where "the light is bright and artificial, / yet not dissimilar to t...

A book of poems that reckons with love in all its forms, by the priest and poet Spencer Reece—his first collection in ten years.. . . My old love,my love who gave me language that I love,when there are no words, there are only acts.Spencer Reece, a poet and an Episcopal priest, suffuses his poetry with tenderness, humanity, and a wonderous alchemy of beauty and sorrow. As the Nobel laureate Louise Glück wrote, “emanating from Spencer ...

Longlisted for the National Book AwardA moving, subtle sequence of narrative poems, from a sharp new poetic voiceTwo strangers walk toward Emmaus. Christ has just been crucified, and they are heartbroken—until a third man joins them on the road and comforts them. Once they reach Emmaus and break bread, the pair realizes they have been walking with Christ himself. But in the moment they recognize him, he disappears. Spencer Reece draws on this tender story in...

Time Period: 1620 Oct.-Nov. Imagine leaving the land you know and the friends you hold dear-and you'll begin to understand the whirlwind of emotion that awaits ten-year-old Sarah Smythe. This fictional Pilgrim aboard the Mayflower is moving from Holland to the New World-America-in the vanguard of a new nation of free people. Especially for girls ages eight to twelve, this fascinating story shares the hopes and fears of a girl distant in time but close in spirit, while at the same time teac...

Time Period: 1620 Nov. Freezing weather, lack of food, and sickness make the first winter at Plymouth Colony a difficult and dangerous time. What would that winter be like for a ten-year-old girl? Find out in Rebekah in Danger, part of the Sisters in Time series. Written especially for eight- to twelve-year-old girls, this dramatic story shows how a seventeenth-century girl-not terribly different from girls of the twenty-first century-overcame some of the most challenging ...