From the author ofMaybe the Saddest ThingandSilencercomes a playful yet profound poetry collection that orbits the intersections of public loss, private grief, (dis)connection, capitalism, and identity.

InDear Mothership, Marcus Wicker channels the lyrical dexterity of Outkast and the speculative vision of poet Robert Hayden to chart a course through personal and political upheaval.

The collections centerpiece is the Break Beat CrownWickers original take on the heroic crown of sonnetspresented as a travelogue from an extraterrestrial who has touched down in modern-day Atlanta. Across linked poems, the outsider records field notes on pandemic discord, isolation, tenderness, late-stage capitalism, empathy, and art. The longer the speaker inhabits a dysfunctional society, the more alien he feels. In addition to these science fictional experiments, Wicker delivers affecting, personal poems grounded in lived experience: lingering grief over two miscarriages, the sudden death of a friend, a sustained search for joy on the other side of those heartbreaks.

With its singular imagination,Dear Mothershipkindles a new understanding of what makes us most human.

MARCUS WICKER is the author of three books of poetry:DEAR MOTHERSHIP,Silencer, andMaybe the Saddest Thing, selected by D.A. Powell for the National Poetry Series. His honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, the Poetry Society of Americas Lyric Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize, and Ruth Lilly Fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, The Fine Arts Work Center, and Cave Canem. Wickers poems have appeared inThe Nation,The New Republic,The Atlantic,Oxford American, andPoetry Magazine. He is an Associate Professor and the Orgill Chair of English at the University of Memphis, where he teaches in the MFA program.

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publish Date: September 8, 2026
• Pages: 112
• Language: English
• Type: Paperback
• EAN/UPC: 9780063487697
• Dimensions:9 in H | 6 in W | 0.3 in T | 0.33 lb Wt
• BISAC Categories: Poetry