I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom

“What we inherit from our mothers, what we carry forward, what we never receive, and what we choose to leave behind—Kim Dower’s poetry resonates with the echo of a rich and complex mother-daughter relationship that she gently and carefully unravels, line by line. This is a stunning collection from a poet whose wisdom as a daughter and a mother shines through on every page.” —Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters

"Featuring gorgeous gems from Dower's four poetry collections and new pieces energized by the sheet power of her wit and irreverent style, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom will make readers both groan at and delight in recognition of the everyday absurdities and magical moments that add up to a lifetime of irreplaceable memories."  —Shahina Piyarali, Shelf Awareness

"[Kim Dower's] fantastic new collection, 'I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom,' revolves around quotidian details of domestic life – washing dishes, doing laundry – but existential questions are always lurking beneath the surface."  —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"Lit up with sudden lyricism ("Her body releasing mist from the hurricane inside her"), Dower's sharply observed quotidian detail will draw in even casual readers of poetry." —Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

“In Chinese, the written character for “mother love” is composed of two elements—”love” and “pain.” Kim Dower understands this universal concept in her bones and captures its meaning in these beautiful and powerful poems.” —Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women