Nurse writer,
poet and essayist
Poetry, memoir and essays exploring care, medicine and the work of being human.
“Write what should not be forgotten.”
— Isabel Allende
FORTHCOMING
In the Form of Bread: On Becoming Human
Four Way Books · September 2026
In this new collection of essays, Mary Jane Nealon returns to the question that has shaped her life and work: what do we owe one another?
​
Heartbreaking and often luminous, these pieces reflect on caregiving, grief and the moral work of remaining human.
“In the Form of Bread is an astonishingly compassionate book—and so needed right now.”
— Suzanne Koven, M.D., M.F.A., Harvard Medical School
Upcoming events
April 12, 2026
TBD
​
May 3, 2026
TBD
About
Mary Jane Nealon worked as a nurse for 47 years, including 25 years serving people with HIV/AIDS. She retired as Director of Innovations at Partnership Health Center in Montana, where her work centered on access, dignity and community health.
​
She received her MFA from Warren Wilson College. Her honors include fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and she was the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellow in 2004–2005. In 2019 she received the Dr. Strange Legacy Award from the Montana Primary Care Association.
​
She is the author of two poetry collections, Immaculate Fuel and Rogue Apostle, both published by Four Way Books, and the memoir Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse’s Life, published by Graywolf Press.
​
Mary Jane Nealon is widely recognized as a nurse writer whose work bridges healthcare and social justice, literature and medicine, and the lived realities of caregiving. Her writing speaks to readers of poetry, nonfiction and memoir who are drawn to human stories shaped by service, death and dying, moral inquiry and compassion.
​
She lives in Wall Township, New Jersey.
SELECTED PRAISE
“Pay attention to Nealon—she’s a keeper… This is to be savored.”
— ★Library Journal
“Simultaneously an elegiac memoir and a sparkling prose-poem.”
— ★Kirkus Reviews
“Nealon’s prose is spare and haunting… She holds her own experience up as a mirror for the reader.”
— The Boston Globe
Recognition
Fellowships & Honors
Fine Arts Work Center
Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
Breadloaf Bakeless Prize in Non-Fiction
Dr. Strange Legacy Award
Selected Literary Publications
Mary Jane Nealon’s work has appeared in:
​
The Paris Review
The Kenyon Review
Mid-American Review
Forklift, Ohio
Poets Against the War
SUN Magazine
Contact
Mary Jane welcomes notes from readers, writers and collaborators.
​
For speaking engagements, interviews or inquiries, please write to: