When Workshop for Happiness went to press, neither Kent nor I had any idea who Mormona was. She supplied the epigraph for the issue and one of her poems is discusseed in Kent’s essay. But now Rachel Helps has identified this mysterious woman, pictured here on the cusp of adulthood:
I love this photo. She looks fun. And I think that’s what she was having when she decided to call herself Mormona.
Her full name is Ellen Heloise Day Merkley and she passed away in 1983, but she left behind more works to be discovered. I recommend traipsing over to Rachel’s write-up to get the full scoop.