Prayers for the Lost & for the Living
Winner of the 2025 Firebird Award
by Dina Greenberg
A Brave and Subversive Collection Exploring Loss, Love, and Human Connection
Encounter a powerful and deeply moving collection that confronts grief with honesty and tenderness. Prayers for the Lost & for the Living by Dina Greenberg is a brave blend of poems and stories that explores what it means to be human — the ache of loss, the comfort of memory, the persistence of love, and the quiet strength found in mourning.
From personal grief and family loss to broader reflections on war, identity, and resilience, Greenberg’s work offers solace while refusing easy answers. These pieces are by turns haunting, tender, and subversive — blending spiritual seeking with raw emotional truth.
This is not comforting poetry that looks away from pain — it is poetry that walks through it with courage and grace.
Why This Book Stands Out
Dina Greenberg’s cross-genre work stands apart for its emotional depth and fearless honesty. Blending poetry, prose, and the author’s illustrations, she confronts difficult subjects — death, burial rites, war trauma, motherhood, and remembrance — with empathy, artistic precision, and disarming candidness.
·Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions
Author of the award-winning novel Nemima’s Chance
Powerful blend of personal and universal themes
Praised for its masterful writing and emotional resonance
Endorsed by Anne Becker, Poet Laureate Emerita of Takoma Park, MD
This is a collection for readers who want literature that feels both intimate and profound.
More Than a Book—A Meaningful Experience
Prayers for the Lost & for the Living is a book to return to in times of sorrow, remembrance, or reflection. Ideal for quiet reading, healing, or finding words when your own feel insufficient.
It makes a thoughtful and compassionate gift for those navigating grief, poetry lovers, spiritual seekers, or anyone who appreciates writing that blends loss with hope and beauty.
Author Note
Dina Greenberg holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has served as managing editor for the literary journal Chautauqua and leads creative writing workshops across academic, nonprofit, and community settings.
Greenberg is also a US Fulbright Scholar who spent the autumn of 2025 researching Kosovo’s small and dwindling Jewish population.
Discover Grief Poetry & Spiritual Literature
If you're searching for grief poetry, poems about loss, spiritual poetry, healing through writing, or contemporary literary collections blending poetry and prose, Prayers for the Lost & for the Living by Dina Greenberg offers a brave, beautiful, and deeply human voice.
About the Author
Dina Greenberg
My trauma-sensitive writing and advocacy gives voice to survivors of war, displacement, and sexual violence. This work coalesced in Nermina’s Chance (Atmosphere Press), a novel whose protagonist escapes war in 1992 Bosnia. As an adjunct to my research on war-related trauma, this work of historical fiction approaches the aftermath of war in an intensely personal way.
I lead creative writing workshops, both in person, and in virtual spaces spanning the globe. The Nermina's Chance book tour throughout Bosnia (Aug-Sept 2022), and a return visit in 2024, provided me opportunities to engage with people of all ages in discussions about the impact of intergenerational trauma resulting from war and displacement.
My Prose and poetry has appeared in a range of literary publications, such as: Pembroke Magazine, Split Rock Review, Thrice Fiction, Bellevue Literary Review, Tahoma Literary Review, Barely South, and Wilderness House Literary Review.
I earned an MFA in fiction from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where I served as managing editor for the literary journal Chautauqua.
Recently, I've turned my attention to hybrid forms like prose poetry, flash fiction, and flash creative non-fiction. These compressed works provide me the opportunity to tinker to my heart's content, choosing each word with utmost intention and alacrity. Though my work often prods darker elements of human emotion, I remain primarily hopeful.