Meet Merle Nadlin

Author of A Season of Life

Merle Nadlin is an educational psychologist turned theater and cabaret performer whose life has always been shaped by expression. After a sudden fall in 2023 left her with multiple broken bones and months of recovery, writing became another stage for telling the truth of what she was living.

Her poems were written in the moment, not polished to make pain sound prettier. Through Merle Nadlin’s inspirational and haiku inspired poems, she captures fear, frustration, love, humor, dependence, courage, and the small victories that slowly changed recovery into possibility.

Inspired by the brevity of haiku, Merle writes with emotional honesty and an instinct for saying more with less. Her work moves naturally between grief and gratitude, uncertainty and resilience, creating poetry about new beginnings that feels personal without ever feeling distant.

In A Season of Life, she shares the difficult road from losing independence to walking, skipping, running, traveling, and dreaming of dance again. The result is an inspirational collection rooted in lived experience rather than easy answers.

A Life Built Around Expression

Before becoming a published poet, Merle built a career in psychology and later followed her lifelong passion into theater and cabaret. She has performed internationally with her husband, Larry Butler, bringing the same warmth, honesty, and emotional presence to the stage that now lives on the page.

Why She Writes

Merle writes because some moments are too immediate for long explanations. Her Encouragement poems leave room for grief, love, setbacks, laughter, and hope to exist together, reminding readers that progress can be uneven and still carry us toward something new.