Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, MARY STANLEY grew up around familial values and Southern culture. After moving to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to attend college somewhere distant and exciting, Mary realized that forming one’s identity often means coming home. While at Dickinson College, Mary came to understand the importance of connecting with her roots and their effect on her today. In this spirit of return to foundations, Mary’s work published here focuses on themes of nature, motherhood, love, and origins. Mary is a new writer, and she uses poetry as a meditation on what the past does to the self and where and how it guides one into the future.