National Poetry Month: Remembering Molly Brodak

Not long after Molly Brodak’s death in March, 2020, to honor her work and life, The Headlight Review reprinted three of her poems: “Lock Nest Monster,” “The Living Daylights,” and “Said So.” These had been published a decade earlier at Superstition [Review]. The following spring, THR republished four more poems from Molly Brodak and the year after that an essay by Nick Strum titled “Molly’s Books,” which had been first published in The Volta. This is a brilliant piece of writing, and THR remains grateful to the author for allowing us to share it. For a short time, Molly Brodak was a part of the Kennesaw State University community where THR is produced, and this year as part of national poetry month, we share these pieces again in memory of her and her contribution to American poetry.

Molly Brodak was born in Detroit, Michigan. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and received her BA in English from Oakland University, an MFA in creative writing at West Virginia University. Subsequently, she was honored as a poetry fellow at Emory University. In addition to Emory, she would teach at Augusta State University, SCAD, Georgia College, and Kennesaw State University.

Her poetry collection Cipher won the Pleiades Editor’s Prize; her widely acclaimed memoir Bandit, A Daughter’s Memoir, entailed her life growing up with a father who turned out to be a compulsive gambler and bank-robber. Brodak’s first collection, A Little Middle of the Night, earned the prestigious Iowa Poetry Prize.

Below is a list of links to poems that again bring light to a supernatural artist:

“Table” from Pleidas

“Fossil,” “Red,” and “Recognitions” at The Appendix

“Landscape” and “World War” at The Collapsar

“Threshold” and “Virgin” at The Spectacle

“The Flood” (including the poet’s commentary) at The Poetry Society of America

“How Not to be a Perfectionist,” “The Crowd,” and “In the Morning, Before Anything Bad Happens” at Tyrant Books

~THR Staff