Elizabeth Doyle Solomon

Elizabeth Doyle Solomon was christened Elizabeth Ann Doyle in the autumn of 1942 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was called “Betty Ann,” to distinguish her from Mama, also Elizabeth, who was called Betty.

       Elizabeth’s very first poem was selected by the nuns at the St. Mary of the Angels Catholic School when she was twelve years old, just after her mother died. It represented this K-8 school at a district contest.

       Marriage brought her to the mountains of West Virginia where she lost two babies and adopted two infant daughters. The years brought her to Virginia where she edited “The Rhyme’s Den” poetry column in the Winchester Evening Star. She then founded and became editor of the Central Virginia Leader newspaper in the early 1980’s. Her local poetry column in the Leader was called  “The Poets’ Tree,” and she wrote hundreds of weekly columns about wildflowers, trees, and butterflies in “Back Roads.”

       Along the way, she found time to take care of thirty-five foster children from ages one week to nineteen years old. In 1985, Agape Press published her first collection of poems, SEASONS, in her native Louisiana. It followed the seasons of the year, and had wildflower and nature illustrations by local Albemarle artist Ana Maria Liddell.

       Elizabeth did not submit any poems to poetry journals until the year 2003. The press of returning to college at age fifty-two and subsequent years of teaching and tutoring as a single woman prevented anything except what her profession demanded. These last seven years have been a gift to herself.

       Elizabeth has received numerous awards from the Poetry Society of Virginia (for which she also served as Contest Chair), and from the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. As a K-4 teacher, she has conducted poetry workshops in the classroom for over thirty-five years. Since 2003, she has moderated a weekly poetry critique group for the Virginia Writers Club.

       Elizabeth’s poems and articles have been published in Albemarle Almanac, Charlottesville Observer, From Riverbanks to Mountaintops Anthology, Mid-America Poetry Review, Appalachian Voice, Nomad’s Choir, Pegasus, A Common Wealth of Poetry, Red Owl, Blue Ridge Anthology 2007 and 2009, The Louisiana Review, Westward Quarterly, Poesia, Timber Creek Review, The Lyric, and Plainsongs.

       From New Orleans to West Virginia, from northern to central Virginia, Elizabeth’s journey has led her to a country road in Albemarle County, Virginia, where she shares a book-filled home with her husband Bill, a black Persian cat named Shadow, and two rescued cats—Emily Dickinson  II (“Em”) and Robert Frost (“Bob-Cat”).

       Her next collection has already begun, a group of memoir pieces called Journey West—and Everywhere. She looks forward to meeting you again there.

“Elizabeth Doyle Solomon’s poems are love letters with a passion for nature and family. Her clear voice reaches deep into the music and rhythms of the natural world as it sings of such things as a hawk’s tail writing on autumn skies and galloping spring-flooded streams. It bristles with a lover’s protest at earth scraped raw in the name of progress. The heart of this collection is rich with family memories: Mama’s fragile strength, Daddy’s playful Irish brogue, Grandma, who faced sorrow by giving grief to the prairie winds. Their courage and wisdom speak to us still in the poignancy and joy of Elizabeth’s poems.”
– SUNDAY ABBOT
Award Winning Poet
Poetry Society of Virginia

“Elizabeth Solomon is a brilliant poet. She possesses a facility with language that leaves prose writers simply marveling in her wake. Her secret? She writes, unhesitantly, from the heart–a warm heart that’s experienced much of life’s happiness, and an overgenerous helping of its woes. Your heart, no doubt, will respond.”

– RICK BRITTON
Author & Historian
Jefferson, A Monticello Sampler

“Elizabeth’s poetry bubbles forth from a total mind-body commitment to the craft. Though she produces at a phenomenal rate, each and every one of her poems feels hand-crafted, polished with loving care, and as rich as dark word chocolate. Regardless of what style or genre of poetry you normally enjoy, Elizabeth’s poems hold something for everyone, and are meant to be read with the same loving care and smiles that have been placed into them. Read slowly; read carefully; read them one at a time, and you will be rewarded with great poetry, and your own (perhaps poetic) inspiration.”

– JACK TRAMMELL
Author & Historian
Down on the Chickahominy