Donna Marie Merritt (born 1965) is an American poet and children's author. Writing about such topics as unemployment and cancer, her poetry has been described as “the real thing, [a] moving human experience artfully expressed” by poet Dave Morrison. Merritt's collections contain serious and humorous poems, and the poetic forms range from traditional verse to free verse to haiku. Personal life Merritt was born in Rome, NY, on January 6, 1965, spent much of her childhood in Texas, and moved to Connecticut when in high school. Merritt earned an A.S. in Early Childhood Education from Mattatuck Community College, a B.S. in Elementary Education from Central Connecticut State University (graduating first in her class), and an M.S. in Psychology from Central Connecticut State University (with a 4.0 GPA). Donna Marie Merritt (maiden name: Mulcahy) has also written under the name Donna Pitino and a variety of pseudonyms. She lives with husband Stew Merritt and has two adult daughters and one adult stepson. Career Donna Marie Merritt spent 14 years as an elementary and middle school teacher before devoting her time to writing. Her first children's book, Let’s Eat!, was published by Abrams Learning Trends in 2004. Her contributions to the Big Book Math™ and Big Book Science™ series won the Teachers’ Choice Award from Learning Magazine in 2007 and 2009. Her book Too-Tall Tina was part of the Math Matters® series from Kane Press that won Learning’s Teachers’ Choice Award for Children's Books in 2008. Merritt's newest poetry book, Bible Poems for Reflection and Response (2020, Cladach Publishing), covers every book in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. “What a wonderful and inspirational book, a book which presents what is at the heart of the Bible—those lessons and stories which offer to us in our finest light or in our darkest moments the truth of what it means to struggle to be human." ~Poet John L. Stanizzi Her No Winter Maintenance: Pass at Your Own Risk (2017), available from Amazon is"Both wise and wickedly funny," according to poet George Bilgere. We Walk Together was published in 2015 by Beech Hill Publishing Company . Poet Barbara Crooker says, "Merritt's is a plain undecorated style, bearing witness to our troubled world." Her House and Other Poems, was released by Stairwell Books in June 2013. About this book, poet and novelist David Kherdian says, "Here we have an eye open to the world,