In her first published book of poetry titled Orbit, Megeen R. Mulholland has written a collection of work that poignantly explores motherhood. This poetry has been inspired by her large Irish family's oral narrative and snapshot photography. The author creates dialogues between past and present family history as she visually and thematically arranges words and images on the page. She does so with the awareness that she carries a valuable emotional investment like that other inter-arts writers bring to their material. She is inspired when she discovers details like her father's handwriting in smudged black pencil on the back of certain shots, referring to the speed of the f-stop or comments about the scenery during travel. In her creative interpretation, she literally engages in what renowned critic Roland Barthes, in his work Camera Lucida, would say is an attempt to "accede to what is behind," and to "turn the photograph over, to enter into the paper's depth, to reach its other side" (100). She incorporates these insights in all types of writing, including poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and academic research. Selected poems from Orbit have been published in highly esteemed literary and academic journals and anthologies such as Adanna Literary Journal, Connecticut River Review, and Modern Language Studies. Her work has also appeared in anthologies such as Roots and Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family edited by Liz Rosenberg and Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined edited by Andrea J. Buchanan and Amy Hudock. Dr. Mulholland received her Ph.D. from the University at Albany. She is also a graduate of the Master of Arts program in English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University. She is currently an Associate Professor at Hudson Valley Community College where she teaches literature and creative writing.
