I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe

edited by Susana H. Case & Margo Taft Stever, Milk & Cake Press

Pinnacle Achievement Award for Best Anthology & International Book Awards and American Book Fest Awards Finalist for Best Poetry Anthology, Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Finalist & Honorable Mention

Watch Behind the Icon with Gary Vitacco-Robles as Margo Taft Stever and Susana H. Case discuss the Marilyn anthology

Visit Christal Cooper’s blog for more on the Marilyn anthology

Visit The-POV for an interview with Susana H. Case & Margo Taft Stever

Review by Laurence Carr in Lightwood

Visit “Marilyn Walks in Our Shoes”

Praise for this anthology:

“Six decades following her untimely death, Marilyn Monroe remains a muse. The actress & poet continues to inspire each generation’s dreams, imagination, art, & resilience. This collection of poems run the gamut with prose depicting her childhood sexual abuse, mental illness, dazzling & brilliant film career, support of civil rights, alleged & fabled relationships, & death. Monroe’s impact on our culture—and on each of us individually—is captured in this fascinating compilation.” 

—Gary Vitacco-Robles, Marilyn: Behind the ICON podcastICON: The Life, Times & Films of Marilyn Monroe, volumes 1 & 2Cursum Perficio: Marilyn Monroe’s Brentwood Hacienda

I Wanna Be Loved by You—the perfect title for a renewed Marilyn coursing through the dreams of poets who still see the promise and the woe of her life, imagining themselves into what it was like for her to look for love and get so much of it that was not enough. They look for her blessing. The want to complete the life she left for all of us to imagine. 

—Carl Rollyson, Marilyn Monroe Day by Day: A Timeline of People, Places, and EventsMarilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Female Icons: Marilyn Monroe to Susan Sontag

Event dates:

Tuesday, March 5, 2024, 7:30-8:30 EST, Harvard Club of Westchester (Zoom)

Monday, February 14, 2022, 7-9 PM EST, KGBBAR Launch, NYC (in-person event)

Thursday, February 24, 2022, 7-8:30 PM EST, Red-Headed Stepchild Listen on YouTube

Tuesday, March 1, 2022, 7 PM EST, Poetry Society of NH (Zoom)

Sat March 19, 2022, 7-8 PM  EST, SMOL Bookfair (Zoom)

AWP Philadelphia, Day/Time TBA, Anthology Panel: “Creating an Anthology for the First Time: The Poet as Editor” (in-person event)

AWP PhiladelphiaFriday Mar 25, 2002, Time TBA, Book Signing, Milk and Cake Press table (in-person event)

Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, 3-4:40 PM EST—Cultivating Voices (Zoom)

Wednesday, April 20th, 2022, 7-9 PM EST, Hudson Valley Writers Center (hybrid event) Listen on YouTube

Saturday, June 4th, 2022, 5-6:30 PM EST, Lit Balm (Zoom)

Monday, June 6th, 2022, 7 PM EST, Oradell Library, New Jersey (in-person event)

Friday, June 24, 2022, 7 PM EST, BGSQD, 208 West 13th St, NYC (in-person event)

Monday, December 5, 2022, 7:30 PM, Cafe Muse (Zoom)

Click here to purchase a copy of I Wanna Be Loved by You