About

Deirdre Fagan is a professor, assistant chair, and coordinator of creative writing in the English, Literature, and World Languages Department at Ferris State University. Fagan is the author of the poetry collection, Phantom Limbs (Finishing Line Press, 2023); a memoir, Find a Place for Me, (Regal House Publishing, 2022); a collection of short stories, The Grief Eater, (Adelaide Books, 2020), a chapbook of poetry, Have Love, (Finishing Line Press, 2019), and a reference book, Critical Companion to Robert Frost, (Facts on File, 2007). Fagan’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and critical essays on poetry, memoir, and pedagogy have appeared widely in literary and scholarly journals and anthologies, popular newspaper and magazines, and encyclopedias. She is poetry editor for Orange Blossom Review.

Featured Work

Find a Place for Me

2022
Book Cover

Find a Place for Me is a memoir about facing a marriage’s last act—a spouse’s death—as a couple united in mind and holding hands. Deirdre and Bob are married eleven years and have two young children when forty-three-year-old Bob is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS determines the journey their marriage will now take, but Bob and Deirdre are resolute in how they will traverse their remaining months as a couple. Chronicling Bob’s illness, Find a Place for Me is also the love story of a happy marriage filled with humor, honesty, and essential conversations. In this moving, tragic, and surprisingly funny book, Deirdre and Bob raise a glass to love and the life each of them has left while learning how to lovingly say goodbye.

Other Works

  • Phantom Limbs

    2023

  • The Grief Eater

    2020

  • Have Love

    2019

  • Critical Companion to Robert Frost

    2007

Awards and Recognition

  • 2023 17th Annual National Indie Excellence Award Death & Dying Winner for Find a Place for Me
  • 2023 Readers’ Favorite Awards Gold Medal for Find a Place for Me
  • 2022 Eric Hoffer Category Finalist for The Grief Eater
  • 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for The Grief Eater
  • 2023 Shelf Unbound Indie Notable 100 for Find a Place for Me
  • 2022 Living Now Awards Bronze Medal for Find a Place for Me
  • 2022 American Writing Awards Memoir Finalist for Find a Place for Me
  • 2022 American Bookfest “Best Book” Awards Finalist for Find a Place for Me
  • 2021 Pushcart Prize nomination for “Stepping Up,” poem nominated by the editor of Rat’s Ass Review
  • 2021 Best of the Net nomination for “Stepping Up,” poem nominated by the editor of Rat’s Ass Review
  • 2019 Pushcart Prize nomination for “Homesick,” poem nominated by the editor of Constellate Journal
  • 2019 Honorable Mention, Art Talks Back Contest, Muskegon Art Museum for poem, “Notre Amour, Comme une Pomme, Vient de la Terre”
  • 2018 Best of the Net Finalist for the poem, "Outside In."

Press and Media Mentions