Parallel Press releases ‘Small Acts’

In the Parallel Press’s latest chapbook release, “Small Acts,” poet Mary Mercier explores how minuscule events reveal principal life themes.

According to Mercier, she began writing “Small Acts” with no particular design in mind. However, as the chapbook’s content emerged, so did a cohesive idea: sense of place. Many of the poems in “Small Acts” relate to Mercier’s own sense of place as a writer, “meaning all of those things which have, over time, connected me to particular places or particular ‘kinds’ of places,” she says.

“I believe that one’s connection to a place is what gives one a sense of awareness about that place,” Mercier says. “And awareness is what it’s all about, if you’re a writer. Everyone is exposed to the same world, but not everyone seems to notice where they have landed.”

Mercier’s insights into sense of place drive “Small Acts.” Grace, life, death, faith, and transformation appear in Mercier’s keen observations of everyday occurrences.

Mercier, a native of Milwaukee, writes poems and essays derived from the land and those who inhabit it. Over the years her work has appeared in regional and national publications, such as The Milwaukee Journal, Farmstead, Learning, National Gardening, Alaska Magazine and Wisconsin Natural Resources.

She completed a master’s degree in environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where her research explored the connections between poetry and a writer’s sense of place. Mercier has worked as a gardener, teacher, farmer, and factory employee. She now advises students in environmental studies at UW–Madison. “Small Acts” is her first collection of poems.

This is the fourth chapbook released this year by Parallel Press, an imprint of the UW–Madison Libraries. Since 1998, Parallel Press has released 20 original chapbooks by various Wisconsin and Midwestern award-winning poets, including Ted Genoways, Judith Strasser, Max Garland, and an upcoming selection from Jean Feraca.

Each Parallel Press chapbook is $10; annual subscriptions for six are $50. Orders may be sent to: The Parallel Press 372 Memorial Library 728 State St. Madison, Wis. 53706.

For more information, call (608) 262-2600.