Love from the Outer Bands is a debut book of poetry by Boston College alumna Mary Block. Block, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English from BC in 2006, says her time at the Heights had a profound influence on her work, citing in particular Paul Mariani’s class on postwar American poets, Amy Boesky’s course on Milton’s Paradise Lost, and her independent study in creative writing with John Anderson. Miami Poet Laureate Caridad Moro-Gronlier writes of Love from the Outer Bands: “Block’s expert use of form, structure and prosody presents motherhood as construct, as commentary, as conscience, and as love, in its most concrete form. These are not sentimental poems, yet they provide succor and sustenance, the sort of lullaby everyone needs.” Block’s poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2020, RHINO, Nimrod International Journal, and Sonora Review, among other publications.