Frank Lehner a poet, award-winning book designer, folk artist, and playwright. Frank hails from and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife, the writer and educator, Nancy Koerbel, and their Husky mix, Mssr. Bârü.

He is the principal at Naridus, LLC. Frank holds a BA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a master's degree in psychology from Duquesne University.

The author is one of the founding members of the literary magazine 5 AM. His chapbook Some Kingdom is published by GTA Press. Frank's poetry has appeared in diverse periodicals and his plays have been staged in Pittsburgh and New York City

In his first full-length collection, Frank Lehner delivers a lifetime of earned wisdom, humility, and grace, taking us on pilgrimages to holy sites where we meet his beautiful, flawed saints. The poems resonate with the pulsing rhythms of Pittsburgh, the city he unabashedly loves. He finds the sacred in all small living things--insects, birds, flowers, animals. There's a stillness here in which transformations take place, a kindness which allows our shared humanity to be recognized and celebrated. Through litany and urban legend, through incantations and prayer, Lehner lifts us into a spiritual world where the potential for totems is everywhere. Every penny found is a jewel with its own story to tell. Lehner doesn't imbue these totems with magic--he recognizes and pays tribute to the magic they already have: "The bumble bee on my forearm offers a powdery gold tattoo of her journey."

- Jim Daniels, author of Blessing the House, and Rowing Inland.

Frank Lehner's new book, Mrs. Nussbaum's Monkey, is a Pittsburgh pastoral. It is a love poem and a field guide to the unknown landscape that exists beneath and beyond the truisms about blue collar, industrial cities in America. Here, Lehner is the Whitman of his city. "I dress in the sacred garment of streets," he writes. And he drenches those streets in tenderness, generosity, and a welter of unexpected detail " Mrs. Nussbaum's Monkey is a tribute to the unknownness of place, of the many surprising places this industrial city represents. This book is an eloquent revision. A revelation. -Lynn Emanuel, author of Transcript of the Disappearance, Exact and Diminishing

Publisher: Bottom Dog Press

Pub date: 2025-05-12

Length: 120 pages