Mattie McClane visits a second-hand store and discovers a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling: it is for sale. As if part of a show, an outside light catches a piece of the cut glass. Colors project onto the wall. McClane, a fan of sunlight, delights in the fact that the light is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. She explores color in her poetry, asserting that the visual is the first language or the mother word.

McClane is a graduate of Augustana College, earning a B.A. in the Humanites. She also holds an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Univeristy of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has worked with Alison Lurie and Sena Jeter Naslund in fiction. She studied poetry with Dennis Sampson. She lives in North Carolina.