Madeline featured in “The Nuns Who Wrote Poems”
Madeline DeFrees is featured in the article, “The Nuns Who Wrote Poems,” by Nick Ripatrazone, in the May 25, 2020 issue of America, The Jesuit Review.
In the mid-20th century, several nuns…were writing ambitious poems and publishing them in renowned magazines and newspapers. Their writing garnered awards and accolades. These women were not the first literary nuns–Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, O.S.H., a 17th-century Mexican nun, is famous for her iconic verses–but something of a minor literary renaissance happened in mid-century America and abroad. Although literary nuns tend to be overshadowed by poetic priests like Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., and Robert Southwell, S.J., these women deserve attention.