No Distance Between Us

MARIANNE PEEL is a poet, musician, and retired English teacher. She received Fulbright-Hays Program awards to further her research in Nepal and Turkey and to support her work as a teacher. She also served as an educator in China’s Guizhou province and as a volunteer at Kara Tepe refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. Peel’s poetry has appeared in numerous print and online journals. No Distance Between Us is her debut book.

“In this collection, Marianne Peel takes a reader on a journey of the heart—from Greece and Turkey to Nepal and China, from Ukraine to the US. With passion, curiosity, and a keen eye for detail, Peel introduces readers to places and lives that seem, on the surface, to be far removed from her own. These are people—loving, shattered, joy-filled, and oh so human—with whom Peel shares the intimacy of story, music, and dance. No Distance Between Us is indeed the message, not just for Peel in her travels, but for all of us who are transported with the poet.” 

—Laura Apol, author of A Fine Yellow Dust

“Marianne Forman’s poems inspired by travel around the world and refugee experience reflect an astonishing awareness of detail, encompassing empathy and transformation. A haunting poetic accomplishment.”

—Jan Freeman, author of Blue Structure and Simon Says

“Marianne Peel’s evocative poetry collection travels to faraway places inside a rich diction. Her lyrical tenderness and compassion for humanity reveal a keen eye and an abundance of the heart. Each poem tells a story, and each story tells a truth. Stunning.”

—Julie Maloney, founder and director of Women Reading Aloud

“As the Argentine writer Lucio Mansilla once ironically noted, “we travel to broaden our minds, only to forget what little we have learned on this earth.” Yet, there are those who travel with awareness, who travel with one eye trained on the outside world and another on the inner. These are the travelers who can teach us about the human heart. Like Pico Iyer writes, they travel with open hearts and eyes to find themselves, “to shake up our complacencies by seeing all the moral and political urgencies, the life-and-death dilemmas, that we seldom have to face at home.” Marianne Peel is such a traveler; her sight, her heart, her pen bring us into a community of wise women and caring men scattered across the globe, in out of the way places. Her book is a rich estuary, a houseboat of stories full of heart.” 

—Jeremy Paden, author of World As Sacred Burning Heart

“From the beautiful to the unimaginable, compassion radiates from ‘the underbelly of each word’ of No Distance Between Us by Marianne Peel. The author’s exquisite storytelling voice brings to life vivid characters with their human joys and heartbreaking struggles. The flavors and beauty of distant lands coexist with sickness, poverty, and tragedy. The poetry in this book opens our hearts ‘to let in the light.’ To hold each other’s hands, and sing. And what brings me to tears the most is the life-changing personal journey of the speaker, the appreciation of each gesture, the generosity extended and received. Thank you, Marianne, for inviting us ‘in your country.’”

—Katerina Stoykova, author of Second Skin