Behind the book
There’s a woman
inside the mother.
In the Shadow of Her · A memoir in poetry
The heart of the book
Some stories aren’t spoken.
They’re survived.
Motherhood can hold love and fear in the same breath. In the Shadow of Her makes room for both: the tenderness, the NICU grief, the postpartum weight, and the woman learning to hear herself again.
This is a memoir in poetry. The story moves through poems rather than a straight line, letting each page hold what a tidy explanation cannot.
“I don’t write to be quiet.
I write to survive.”
That same voice runs through Penny’s books and performances. Here, it turns toward motherhood, survival, and the parts of a woman that don’t disappear when she becomes someone’s mother.