Our Authors
Madelyn Garner
In The Luminous Between, “God is a question, not an answer.” Taken from Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Inquiry, the phrasing suggests the idea that the nature of God is not something that can be definitively defined, an absolute knowable. In fact, this collection explores how accepting the possibility of a God can depend on independent thought and personal experience rather than on what might be dictated by the community-at-large or established ideological systems. In that way, Madelyn Garner’s poems examine the existence of the divine within the context of daily life, the earthly. Without proselytizing, some pieces deal directly with the possibility of a Holy Spirit. Others explore related ideological questions that arise from the pleasure and pain of the world. A few suggest that laughter and even irreverence are essential if one is to see belief anew. Ultimately, The Luminous Between invites readers to consider all the ways ordinary life is filled with moments that may require not only spiritual or ethical acknowledgment, but also a response.
Poet Madelyn Garner brings nonstop candor, formidable craft, and alliterative genius to her unabashed testament to “God-hunger.” Over and over, this questing writer and upfront seeker artfully unearths compelling music and unfailing wonder in the “Earth-birthed” and the everyday: “Know faith only as the humblest of bread: wheat and barley, alchemy of almonds….” The Luminous Between, in its steady insistence on the holiness of worldly details, of mundane pleasure and doubt, is a gorgeous, sacramental book.”
—Cyrus Cassells, Everything in Life Is Resurrection: Selected Poems,
2021 Texas Poet Laureate, Jackson Poetry Prize, 2025
The poetry of Madelyn Garner carries her love for the world and her love for the word (capitalized and uncapitalized) in a tender cupped hand; few contemporary poets are able to demonstrate such mastery of craft and this level of intellectual and emotional dexterity as they wander the limitless spaces of mortality. The Luminous Between features her “wild psalms (amid) brambles of uncertainty,” even as her carefully carved ivories bless us with the knowledge that this place is where “some days [the] Earth is sermon enough.” This collection unfolds as origami made from ancient scrolls, and the reader rides on lyrical updrafts of faith and loss and deep celestial images, never losing the liturgic truth that it is every single one of us who is “waiting for [our] name to be called.” This is a book that calls and calls and calls to us, demanding we listen.
—Seth Brady Tucker, We Deserve the Gods We Ask For, Eric Hoffer Book Award
Compelling, remarkably honest, and adopting a variety of poetic structures, The Luminous Between investigates both the softer and sharper edges of our unique emotional landscapes in a series of exciting, accessible poems that explore equally the strengths and frailties of the human condition in its varied aspects—personal identity, grief, relationships, family, and slowly mending hearts. Weaving together universal, open-hearted narratives into a poignant collection, The Luminous Between is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging, reminding us of the beautiful complexities of being human.
—John Sibley Williams, As One Fire Consumes Another, Orison Poetry Prize, 2018
The Luminous Between undertakes an unsparing spiritual journey in poems that “psalm God into presence.” With language of consummate grace and authority, Madelyn Garner leads us into the most ephemeral places. Claiming that she “will not bless the pain that ruins prayers,” the poet nonetheless cracks open the obdurate world with skeptical insistence. And amid all that is lost, all that is endured, Garner knits new connection, turning ecstasy inside out with hunger, love, and defiance. Here is a new, sometimes troubled, paradise that the reader cannot help but enter: Garner’s poetry challenges us to experience transcendence in new ways. Bite into the juicy, forbidden flesh of these poems. They await, ready to make “Eden out of the apples.”
—Elizabeth Robinson, Excursive, Pushcart Prize, among other recognitions
Master teacher, editor and poet, Madelyn Garner has degrees from the University of Denver and Mills College. As a creative writing instructor and middle school principal, she is widely recognized for designing and implementing a variety of innovative educational programs at all levels, elementary through university. Among her educational achievements and honors, she is the recipient of the Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities for encouraging incorporation of the arts into school programs and her leadership in providing students opportunities in the field of writing. Named a Leo Love Merit Scholar at the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, Madelyn is a recipient of an Aspen Writers’ Foundation’s Annual Writing Retreat Scholarship and Jackson Hole Writers Conference Poetry Prize. Her work has been anthologized in the Best American Poetry series as well as in numerous journals. She is co-editor of the poetry anthology, Collecting Life: Poets on Objects Known and Imagined, a Colorado Book Award Finalist. Her debut collection, Hum of Our Blood, chosen for publication in the Open Reading Period of Tupelo/3: A Taos Press, was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award.
