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writing

excerpts from some of my published poems and essays,

and where to find them

Writing at the crossroads of wonder and witness.

Olga-Maria holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, a Master of Divinity in Theology and the Doctor of Philosophy in Ethics; she taught for thirteen years at Bellarmine University. Her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Pen & Brush, and Poetry East, among others. Her first chapbook of poems, A Philosopher Speaks of Rivers, was published in 2005 by Finishing Line Press of Cincinnati.

​

Cruz received a 2004 Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW) for the completion of her first full-length manuscript of poetry, and grants from KFW and the Kentucky Arts Council in 2007 for work on a memoir. Her essay, “Salvaging Parts,” was published by Lee Gutkind in the 2015 anthology from In Fact Books, Same Time Next Week.

Poems

from Little Circe

"Even at three, she knew

the days were hers,

the tides came in,

the dune-grass curled

at her command..."

​

Poetry East, no. 61

from I'm curious

"... Yesterday, heedless as a toddler

and as easily bored,

I clicked through Malaysia (traffic)

and Scotland (river), India (rooftops),

Canada (quirky container garden)

and watched an old woman

hanging up wet clothes in China..."

Essays

"Fasting was a new idea to me; it sounded mysterious and powerful—a bloodless sacrifice."
 from Fasting: a Diptych
"I started dissociating more and differently after Papi died. Sometimes at the piano, I floated up to the ceiling and watched myself play..."
 from Salvaging Parts

Podcast

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