Ms. Murphy is the author of two books, The Autopsy (Spoon River Poetry Press, 1985) and Belief Blues (Portals Press, 1999). In his introduction to Belief Blues, poet W.D. Snodgrass writes, "Maybe you don't really want to read these poems. Are you sure you want to know about the lives of those at the low end of the scale -- those that World War Two gave the free time to grow dissatisfied and hate-filled, left without a real body of beliefs to enfold them in a stable, protected society?" Murphy's latest project is a book of formal poems. Her poetry has appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Spoon River Poetry Quarterly, College English, New Orleans Review, and has been anthologized in From a Bend in the River: 100 New Orleans Poets. Murphy is also a poetry critic; her work appears regularly in Chelsea and other literary journals.