MIA DYSON was born to a British father and a German mother. She earned a BA from Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty in Inter­na­tion­al Rela­tions and a BS in Nursing from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty. In 2016 Mia dis­cov­ered that her grand­fa­ther had been an officer in Hitler’s SS. In 2024, Mia earned an MFA from the Stonecoast MFA in Cre­ative Writing at Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Maine. Her thesis man­u­script is a col­lec­tion of doc­u­men­tary poems over­ly­ing photos from her family archive, and photos she took during her research. The photos dating ca. 1915 and 2023, were taken in England, Germany, and the US.

This poem orig­i­nal­ly appeared in Stonecoast Review Issue 22. 

Photo by Mia Dyson