Nancy Bevilaqua

Gelyana Nancy Bevilaqua

"I...have felt from early childhood that there is something wrong with the figure of Jesus as presented to us by religious tradition." --Stephan Hoeller, from his lecture entitled "Jesus Christ: The Misunderstood Savior" "Gelyana" is an Aramaic word that means "manifestation" or "revelation." Written between 2014 and 2017, shortly following a 16-year period during which the poet wrote no poetry at all, the pieces here, particularly the long title-poem, touch upon themes covered in Nancy Bevilaqua's previous collection, Gospel of the Throwaway Daughter, albeit from a somewhat more personal perspective. Nancy Bevilaqua's poems have appeared in West Branch, Whiskey Island, Tupelo Quarterly, Hubbub, MadHat Lit, Juked, Hermeneutic Chaos, Tinderbox, Rust+Moth, Atticus Review, Apogee Journal, Kentucky Review, here/there, Menacing Hedge, Construction, Houseboat, Café Aphra, and other literary journals. In 2012 she published Holding Breath: A Memoir of AIDS' Wildfire Days. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.