Ann E. Wallace, PhD is the 2023-24 Poet Laureate of Jersey City, New Jersey. As a long-time survivor of ovarian cancer, a woman with multiple sclerosis, and one of the nation's first Long Covid patients, she has lived and written through illness for more than thirty years. Pain, disability, and disease—as well as hope and resilience—have inspired and informed her work as a poet, memoirist, patient advocate, and scholar. Her new poetry collection Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul (Kelsay Books, 2024) was written over three years, beginning when Wallace was first sick with severe acute COVID and following her teenage daughters’ and her long journey of recovery. Wallace serves as a Patient, Caregiver and Community representative for the NIH RECOVER Initiative. She is also co-host and co-producer of The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants by the Native Plant Society of New Jersey and Professor of English at New Jersey City University.
