Gratitude with Dogs under Stars features Debra Marquart’s three collections of lyric poetry and adds twenty-one new poems to round out the experience. Beginning with the collection of new poems, the collection travels backward through Marquart’s illustrious career. Long-time fans and newcomers alike can track the trajectory of this Poet Laureate’s poetic life thus far―the quiet serenity of walking dogs under a starry sky, the horrors of fracking, the beginnings of a tender relationship at a firing range, reflecting on the follies of a youthful life lived carefree. Marquart’s imagery is vivid and concise, painting moments so intrinsically midwestern and so alive they could only be hers.

About the author: Debra Marquart is a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University, as well as the Stone coast Low-Residency MFA Program at University of Southern Maine. Marquart serves as Iowa's Poet Laureate and the Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment.

Image description:  The cover illustration has a starry night sky as background. The title, subtitle, and author's name are displayed on the top half of the cover in yellow letters. There is also a picture of a tree with its branches reaching upwards towards the sky, and the shadow of the branches at the bottom of the picture.