Love Lessons is Mary Ellen Capek's first collection of poems, spanning fifty years, where she describes growing up in the '50s, coming of age in the '60s, first love, sex, marriage, her mother's early death, friendships, divorce, stepchildren, and coming out as a lesbian at age 45.

Several poems central to Love Lessons focus on language, paying tribute to Adrienne Rich and other writers struggling to realize Rich's "dream of a common language," essential for describing women's lives. Her poems also focus on the interconnectedness of all creation, with allusions to essential understandings of justice, human rights, and the intersections of history and politics within our day-to-day lives.

Mary Ellen Capek has had varied work as a teacher/professor, university administrator, national nonprofit executive, philanthropy researcher, organizational consultant, and writer. She finished her Ph.D. in contemporary poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1973, but over the years, poetry took a back seat to her research and other writing. This is her first collection of poems.

Besides this collection, Mary Ellen is also working on a quasi-memoir and collection of selected, previously published prose writing (and a few poems) trying to explain how she got from studying poetry and teaching writing to organizational consulting. Tentatively titled The Power of Naming, this hybrid volume will be published next year.

Mary Ellen's papers are archived at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe (National Council for Research on Women-related publications, speeches, and correspondence); the Rockefeller Archive Center (the Rockefeller Brother Fund research, locked for 20 years); Indiana University/ Purdue University Indianapolis Library (women in philanthropy/ diversity in philanthropy research, speeches, correspondence and notes); the University of Denver (women in higher education research and materials); and the Hilda Raz archives, University of Nebraska—Lincoln (poetry and miscellaneous correspondence).