"People still sing goddamn it. Praise be to erica lewis.” — Sampson Strakweather, author of PAIN: The Board Game

"erica lewis' poems map the relationships among music, memory, place, and the passage of time . . . . By intertwining the public and the personal, Lewis's poems become a membrane through which pop culture permeates the most intimate experiences of selfhood" — Publisher's Weekly

"Every word is held accountable and must carry a sort of gravitas. For all the white space and sparse lines, what remains in the gaps after all the excess has been chipped away is striking. lewis manages to strip language down not to its bare bones, but the particulate marrow contained therein” — The Rumpus

* erica lewis being of both Native-American, white, and black descent gives her a unique, and diverse perspective on American life.

* Every poem is inspired by a line from a Stevie Wonder song.

* The poems focus on lewis' mother’s side of the family, specifically the women. That matrilineal thread is at the core of the book.

* The book’s photo gallery allows the reader to see the people whom lewis writes about, it’s almost like reading a family album.

* mary ... definitely points to the oral traditions and storytelling that are passed down through the women in both native american culture and African-American culture.

* mary … bridges past with present – all of the race and #blacklivesmatter issues happening today happened 100, 50, 30 years ago, not just yesterday.

* mary … is lewis' fifth poetry book and the second book in a book trilogy called box set. The first book of the trilogy, darryl hall is my boyfriend, was published by Barrelhouse in 2015.

* Audio interviews between erica and her mother about the family's experience will be included via a download link

* Poet Tyrone Williams wrote the introduction.