Superbloom: Requiem for My Sister

Joyce Schmid is a grandmother and psychotherapist living in Palo Alto, California, with her husband of over half a century. After graduation from Harvard College in History and Literature, she studied Russian Literature at Columbia Graduate School where she was twice awarded their Pushkin Prize for poetry translation. She then earned a Ph.D., in Clinical Psychology from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (now Palo Alto University).

Her poems have most recently appeared in Bridport Prize Anthology 2025, The Hudson Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, New Ohio Review, Passager, Salt, and other journals and anthologies. Her chapbook is Natural Science (Glass Lyre Press, 2025).

When Joyce’s younger sister Dolly was an undergraduate at Harvard, she was admitted to a coveted poetry workshop taught by Robert Lowell, who admired her poetry. After it ended, Dolly never wrote poetry again. In Dolly’s last years, Joyce asked her if she could quote those poems in her own work. “Please do,” she answered. “Maybe that way someone will see them.” Accordingly, some of the poems in this chapbook contain Dolly’s beautiful words.

Paperback: 52 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (April 13, 2026)