Dove Song:
Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry
Peculiar Pages, 2018
Poetry anthology
Edited with Dayna Patterson & Martin Pulido
Winner, 2018 Special Award in Publishing, Association for Mormon Letters
Cover art by Denise Gasser
Interior artwork by Galen Dara, Lynde Mott, Mariléne Phipps, J. Kirk Richards, & Rebecca Sorge
With a Foreword by the Editors and an Introduction by Susan Elizabeth Howe
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An anthology of poetry and art centered on the Mormon concept of Heavenly Mother, Dove Song includes 138 poems from 80 poets and artists from the early church, to the late 20th Century to today.
This anthology is a shattering summary of poetic revelation, feminist theology, and Mormon history about our Mother God. Over seventy poets speak across time from 1844-2017, describing their visions and yearnings for the divine feminine, like soul mates through the veil. They begin in 1844 with W.W. Phelps, Eliza R. Snow, and Lula Green Richards in 1899, then disappear from the fin de siè·cle to the 1970s when Carol Lynn Pearson and Linda Sillitoe sing our Mother back. Like holy scribes, these poets persist, wondering and writing in the wilderness, seeking a promised land where God is home.
—Maxine Hanks
Editor, Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism
Dove Song is a good choice for readers who want the pleasure of a tasting or a poetic buffet; with so many poems to sample, readers are likely to find some that give them pleasure and insight. This anthology demands that readers come as they are and read according to what they seek. Dove Song has the feel of an apocryphal book of scripture; through the power of the Holy Spirit and their own inner lights, readers can benefit from and accept what feels true for them among all the poets’ visions of the Mother.
—Susan Elizabeth Howe & Casualene Meyer
Editors, BYU Studies Quarterly
Review for BYU Studies Quarterly
She is willful. She is in the other room. She is “the feminine / present subjunctive.” She is “tessellating.” She is “throneless, / wanders.” She is “queen of heaven.” She is a “Heavenly Hausfrau.” She is “Medusa in the kingdom.” She is the “Pillar of Womanhood.” She is “executrix.” She is a “mahogany” woman. She is “the Holy Soul.” She is.
These are among the things we learn about Mother in Heaven in Dove Song. It is glorious.
—Gail Turley Houston
Professor, The University of New Mexico
Review for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought