Mary Mackey is a member of WNBA-San Francisco. She became a writer by running high fevers, tramping through tropical jungles, being swarmed by army ants, and reading. She is the author of 9 poetry collections, including In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse (Marsh Hawk Press 2025);  Sugar Zone, winner of a PEN Award; and The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, winner of the Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by a Small Press. 

Where did the concept for your new poetry book,  In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse” originate?

(MM): The poems in In This Burning World are not simply a collection of unrelated poems. They form a lyrical, poetic look at what I imagine what lies ahead of us as the climate of the Earth changes; and what we can do to preserve hope, joy, and compassion in the face of a slowly evolving catastrophe. They are poems that weave together the most accurate scientific predictions I could find with the emotions we experience when we think about the New Planet that is being created around us as the glaciers melt, the forests burn; and the seas and rivers rise.

In 1966, I saw the cloud forests of Costa Rica being turned into charcoal, and as I stood there on the unpaved gravel of the Pan-American Highway watching those tall trees—with their orchids and hummingbird nests and fog-wreathed branches—tumble to the ground, I became an environmentalist before I had ever heard of the word. This was the moment when I saw the destruction that was coming, the seed that lay in my mind for decades and grew at last into the poems in In This Burning World.

What do you hope readers take away from your new book?

(MM): I hope people who read these poems will find them beautiful, absorbing, and moving. I hope these poems will help bring the science behind the predictions about climate change to life and give emotional force to the unemotional logic of scientific studies; because I believe people must be moved as well as convinced. I hope too that those who read In This Burning World will come to believe—as I do—that mutual aid and kindness are vital in the face of what the future holds for us as the Earth warms; that, if we can’t undo the effects of climate change, we still can choose to love and care for another with passionate kindness and passionate devotion; burn with the determination to shelter and comfort those who have lost everything; reach out to one another and create places where grief cannot enter. And I hope that young people living now and the generations still to born will find in these poems a reason to go on hoping, loving, and living.

How would you describe the relationship between the two kinds of burning: the burning of apocalypse and the burning of love?

(MM): One drives the other—at least I hope it does. If we only concentrate on the apocalyptic changes going on in the Earth’s climate, we risk falling into despair, becoming depressed, frozen like deer in the headlights. When you feel powerless, you give up; you do nothing. But if you concentrate on love and the power of love to unify us, there is a great deal we can do to help one another Every human being on this planet is in the same situation right now or will be in it in fairly near future. I don’t think that there has ever been a time in human history when we have all had so much in common except perhaps during the two great ice ages that humans have lived through in the past 200,000 years.

I see that you wonderfully explain how and where writers get their inspiration from in your book “Creativity: Where Poems Begin.” Where does your inspiration to use poetry as your writing medium come from?

(MM): I write poetry, novels, and screenplays. Some of my novels—particularly The Year The Horses Came, The Horses at The Gate, and The Fires of Spring, which are set in Europe 6000 years ago—have environmental themes, but they also have plots, characters, action, adventures, not to mention love scenes. All these things tend to dilute the impact of observations about the environment, which fades into the background and becomes scenery.

I am inspired to use poetry as a writing medium, because it does some things no other form writing that I know of does with such ease: First, it’s short, concentrated, and has immediate impact. When I write a poem I cut ruthlessly until I arrive at the core. For example, the poem “Cold Snap” that appeared in my collection The Jaguars That Prowled Our Dreams started out as a four page poem and ended up as three lines:

                        Cold Snap

         dying is something you only do

         once

         you don’t have to get good at it

The second thing poetry can do is tolerate ambiguity. When you read a scientific paper, you expect a logical conclusion. But when you read a poem it can spread out in a myriad of different ways, take you to places where contradictions can exist together, even recreate itself and become a new poem in your mind. In other words, poetry is powerful, expansive, and unpredictable.

But perhaps the most important aspect of poetry—at least the kind of poetry I write–is that it can convey emotion better and more powerfully than most other forms of writing, and it does this in more than one way. Poetry can be beautiful and moving; powerful and life-changing; it can recreate touch, taste, and smell. A poem can not only describe what we see when we see a leaf, but what we feel when we see that particular leaf, what that leaf reminds us of, what it is to us or what it isn’t to us. Poetry can take an idea and illuminate it like a medieval manuscript. It can make unusual connections: see faces in tree trunks, messages in clouds, the penmanship of birds. Poetry is imagination set free with no boundaries.

How would you describe your writing process? Does it alter depending on which book you are working on?

(MM): All my writing starts with an idea, an image, or a few words that bubble up from some wordless space inside me. This is hard to express, but I’ve tried to describe where creative ideas come from—not just mine, but everyone’s—in a short book entitled Creativity: Where Poems Begin.

I usually write for about 5 hours a day, mostly in the mornings. I always write the first drafts of my poems in a large notebook. After I’ve revised the first draft four or five times, I enter the poem into a file in my laptop and do six or seven revisions, trying to find better words for what I want to say, encouraging and developing metaphors, playing with line breaks, and cutting ruthlessly. The finished poem—the one readers see—has usually gone through twelve or more revisions.

My process for writing novels is different. I always write novels on my laptop. I start by writing a rough plot summary (which I’m willing to change if I think of something better). I have created blank characters charts, which I fill in for all my main characters, asking myself questions like: “Age?” “Height?” “Friends?” “Enemies?” “Present Problem?” “How Will it Get Worse?” When all this preparation is done—and all the research is finished if this is a historical novel—I start writing. A novel takes me approximately two years to complete. Like poems, I put my novels through multiple revisions—usually at least half a dozen or more.

Except for the need to do historical research for historical novels, this process doesn’t change much depending on which book I’m working on. On the other hand, when I’m writing screenplays my writing process is different. If I’m adapting one of my own novels, I do a new, updated two page outline of the plot and then reconfigure it for film and turn it into a two-page, present tense treatment, which—as usual—I revise, often in collaboration with another screenwriter. The treatment becomes the basis for the screenplay. One thing I do that is a little unusual is to close my eyes and run the film in my mind from start to finish. I do this several times as I polish and revise the screenplay.

How did being a woman shape your experience as a writer?

(MM): When I was young, almost all editors and the majority of agents were male. Women writers were not taken seriously—particularly women poets who were often mocked and thought fit only to write greeting cards. In college I did manage to get a poem accepted by the editors of the undergraduate literary magazine by imitating a poem by Wallace Stevens, which was “male” enough to pass the test; but for the most part, it too was an almost-all-male publication.

At the time, this was frustrating and discouraging, but as the years passed it became clear to me that this lack of acceptance had been a good thing. If my poetry had been welcomed, I would probably have gone on imitating male writers. Instead, I was able to find my own voice—a female voice, individual, personal, not like anyone else’s. And when I began teaching, I was able to help other women find their voices.

More importantly, I became part of a community of women. The year I graduated from college, 1966, was a time when women and people of color were redefining what it meant to be a writer. Women were founding presses like Shameless Hussy Press, which published my first novel Immersion (which was quite probably the first Second Wave feminist novel in the world published by a Second Wave feminist press.). They were creating women’s bookstores and literary magazines like Velvet Glove and Yellow Silk Journal, which published my poetry. I will forever be grateful to the women writers, editors, agents, teachers, librarians, friends, and colleagues who helped, supported, and encouraged me over the years. Without them, I might never have become a writer.

Climate change continues to be a pressing issue for our world. How does your passion for ecology and history tie into your book concepts of the “New Planet” and “Old Planet”?

(MM): In In This Burning World, the “Old Planet” is the planet we’re living on right now, the one we have inhabited for nearly 12,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age. This Old Planet is changing all around us at an increasingly accelerating rate. The “New Planet” is whatever the Earth will be like in the future.

This concept of the Old and New Planet is a natural outgrowth of a lifelong interest.  I write historical novels and enjoy doing the research needed to make the history in them as accurate as possible. As for ecology, I’ve been passionate about it ever since I spent months living in remote tropical field stations in the jungles of Central America surrounded by ecologists who taught me about biodiversity, ecological niches, and why hummingbirds have mites in their noses.

A knowledge of ecology and an awareness of potential changes in the environment such as rising sea levels and rising global temperatures, suggests that the New Planet may be very different from the Old Planet. A knowledge of history tells us that radical changes in an environment eliminates entire species. The question that haunts me, the one that I think we all might want to ask ourselves, is: “Will there be a place for us on this New Planet that we’ve been helping create? No one knows for sure. But poets can imagine where scientists can only reason, and poems can bring what poets imagine to life.

What advice would you give to any aspiring female writers?

(MM): It’s the same advice I’d give to any aspiring writer: Write for fun. Play with your writing. Write freely without worrying about getting published. Write whatever you want. The truth is, there aren’t any rules when it comes to writing; so make up your own. Start a small in-person writing group and share your work with other writers who are at about the same stage in their careers as you are. In my first writing group, none of us had been published and it felt as if we never would be; but we helped and encouraged each other, and as of 2025, the three of us have had over thirty novels published by major publishers and small presses. So don’t get discouraged by rejection. Just keep writing. And revise, revise, and revise.

Mary Mackey’s poetry has been praised by Wendell Berry, Jane Hirshfield, D. Nurkse, Al Young, Daniel Lawless, Rafael Jesús González, and Maxine Hong Kingston for its beauty, precision, originality, and extraordinary range. She is also the author of 14 novels including The New York Times bestseller A Grand Passion.

CJ Palmisano has written since she could scribble “no” on her mother’s immaculate kitchen wall. She has never stopped writing–a few pages here, an entire story there–but for the majority of her adult life, writing couldn’t be a priority. She raised a family and taught, something she did well (for what it’s worth, in 2006 she was in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers).

In 2010, the moment to write full time arrived. She exchanged a classroom for a tiny, poorly lit storage room destined to become a darkroom. She dragged boxes of STUFF to the garage, rolled in a desk and creaky office chair, and settled into a space with a window that natural light couldn’t seem to find. She was determined to become a Real Writer.

What inspired you to start writing?

(CJP): It’s difficult to point to anything specific. I’ve been a storyteller my entire life. Around 3rd grade I wrote little stories teachers encouraged me to submit to kid magazines like “Jack and Jill.” A couple even gave me a copy of the magazine with submission info highlighted. I’m also the oldest of six kids so grew up babysitting (bossing them around is what they’d tell you). We’d construct blanket tents, crawl inside and I’d tell stories. Neighbor kids gathered in our back yard which abutted a wood we all explored. As the oldest, I’d often suggest a story we’d occasionally play out, or “improvise” (though I didn’t know the word at the time). I’d devise a scenario, tell each kid who s/he was, take the best part myself, then we’d act it out.

You’ve written a lot of work for different categories: mini stories, dark, humorous. Do you have a favorite genre you like to work in?

(CJP): It depends on my mood. Every genre gives me a different satisfaction. I love storytelling overall and narrative fiction edges out script writing. When I imagine a story it nearly always reveals itself in a particular way: I might see it as “pure” narrative–a short story or one that might grow into a novella or novel. At some point I moved away from narrative and began writing stage and then screen plays. 

Do you have any goals when it comes to your writing?

(CJP): I currently have four writing goals, the first two are my primary ones:

1. Two screenplays are today getting a lot of attention. Some of the twentyish notices I’ve received in the past couple years include: “Best American Screenplay” at the London Film Fest (Jan 2025) and the NY Script Awards (Dec 2024);  “Best Feature Screenplay at Staged Film Comp (Jan 2025), at the Berlin Women’s Cinema Fest (Apr 2025), and at Boston Indie Films (Nov 2024); “Best Script” at the LA Indies Fest (Mar 2025); Best Female Screenwriter at the Tokyo Film and Screen Awards (April 2025); “Best Fantasy Screenplay” at Hollywood Indie Screenplay Awards (Feb 2025).  
2. I have multiple novel drafts, two of which are close to ready for human eyes. For now, I plan to take a standard publishing route (send to a publishing house and cross my fingers for two years), rather than the quick and “easy” self-publish path. It’s an ego thing–as in I need independent, objective confirmation that my writing is print-worthy.
3. I have a stage play I wrote ages ago which I believe is the best writing I’ve ever done. No one has seen it except my late husband, and though it’s really completed, every now and then I open and tinker with it. I keep planning to send it off but haven’t yet figured out where.
4. I’ve enjoyed writing and publishing on Substack (which I began August 2023) and hope to get back to. I’ve been busy with other projects, but it looks like things will calm down by summer.

You mentioned undergoing a severe writer’s block that spanned years. How did you overcome it and do you have any advice for others?

(CJP): In fall 2014 I stopped writing. I’d open a document, stare into space, then close it. Within months I hated writing and stopped even trying. Then January 2020 I was at the Sundance Film Festival, recruiting people for the newly formed Sundance Collab–an international on-line site for film artists, directors, actors, writers, etc. I signed up to demonstrate how to navigate the site though didn’t expect to join full time. That April, as COVID was heating up, Sundance’s Collab introduced a MWF screenwriting workshop. Largely because I was fed up with myself about not having written a word for 6 years, I committed to joining the Collab for an hour every MWF even if I didn’t do anything other than (perfunctorily) scribble off a paragraph. Yet, within a month I was not only attending every 8:00 write-in but writing on non Collab days. Months later, after I’d stopped writing drivel, I joined London Writers’ Salon (LWS) which met three times a day, Sunday through Friday; I religiously attended at least two session every day. I also began reading my work in (on-line) Open Mics, Prompt Writing Socials, and created a Substack Newsletter. Sorry for another cliché but I felt as though Writer Me had risen from the dead. LWS was a godsend as was the Sundance Collab which got me started.

How have your experiences in theater influenced you as a writer?

(CJP): Theater has been a lifelong passion. I was active in High School (my yearbook includes “future actress” in my bio). I fully intended to move to NYC upon graduation and likely would have become one of the many starving actress/waitresses living in the Big Apple. Life, however, threw me a curveball, though I continued performing regional theater into in my thirties.

I was 16 when I wrote my first play; it’s embarrassingly bad. Years later I decided to rework it but just reading it was torturous, so still it gathers dust. I had minor theater successes in New England (where I lived until 25 years ago), seeing four of my plays staged. I shifted to screenplays when, one day I was hit with a story I envisioned unfolding on screen, instead of on-stage as was typical. I studied a few scripts and drafted the story. Months later I took an intro class in screenwriting. Screenplays are what I primarily wrote for the next couple decades.

And lastly, do you have a favorite piece of writing that you have worked on before?

(CJP): Maybe “How Far to Woodstock,” my first published short story (in Stanford’s 2020 anthology, 166 Palms). Also, the evolution of the actual story carries special meaning to me. I’ve since drafted a companion piece, “State of Grace,’ which was supposed to be another short story to include (with the “Woodstock” story) in a collection of my short writings. But it kept expanding and at 60K words is turning into a novel. I’d also mention A Legend of Persephone, the first screenplay I wrote (and mention above in #5), the first to receive any kind of recognition: quarterfinals in BlueCat Screenplay Competition, and in Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, both the first year I submitted it anywhere. It’s also one of the two scripts getting awards and recognition these days. I’m currently editing the novelized version of it (mentioned in #3B).

Palmisano has a B.A. in English and Art from University and an M.A. in English Lit from Middlebury College (1995). Under list of her jobs, you’ll find university publications editor, admissions officer, and world and dramatic literature teacher. The résumé details her love of learning: classes and workshops–in theater, film, art, writing, and animation. Her passion for collaboration, exchanging ideas and working in community: film festivals and theater companies, as well as sixteen years as an information guru for the Sundance Film Festival.

Lenore Weiss serves as the Associate Creative Nonfiction (CNF) Editor for the Mud Season Review and lives in Oakland, California. Her environmental novel Pulp into Paper was published last year on Earth Day as was a new poetry collection, Video Game Pointers from WordTech Communications.

What inspired you to write your environmental novel, Pulp into Paper?

(LW): I lived in the Louisiana and Arkansas area for several years. When I stepped outside my house in the morning, I detected a strange smell, almost like a convention of cigar-smokers. This was my introduction to paper mills. 

Through what was then called, the Louisiana Environmental Action Project, I got to know people living in Crossett, Arkansas. Retirees were organizing to pressure the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to investigate high levels of cancer and asthma in both adults and children. Georgia Pacific (Koch Brothers) were dumping the mill’s effluents in people’s backyards, primarily in the black community. People couldn’t eat anything they grew. No tomatoes. The groundwater was polluted. Areas of Crossett were like a toxic dump. While more modern mills employ technologies to recycle the chemicals produced in the pulping process, this particular mill was old. The company did not want to invest in making it a safer place for the workers and people who lived in the area.

My novel, Pulp into Paper, grew out of that experience.

How did your journey into poetry begin?

(LW): My mother loved poetry and recited poems to us as kids by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I loved the rhythm and sound of those words. As I grew older, I read more poetry. I loved The Odyssey by Homer, and Shakespeare’s plays. Of course, I didn’t understand all the words, but his metaphors were like puzzles. I studied 17th and 18th century English poetry from anthologies in our school library: John Donne, and later, William Blake, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and others. I loved poetry and often visited the Gotham Book Mart (now defunct) located in New York City’s jewelry district where I could smell all the old books stacked up to the ceiling and on top of each other. Poetry was like a romance with an attractive lover and I wanted more.

In your biography, your trilogy of poetry focuses on the feelings of love, loss, and being mortal. Why do you think that you gravitated toward those emotions in your work?

(LW): Most of human life is shaped by the emotions of love, loss, and being mortal. In my case, I was frequently sick as a young person. In my early twenties, both my parents died. Poetry helped me navigate through those difficult times. In my twenties, the Black Liberation Movement was emerging, new independent poetry presses like Broadside emerged to publish the work of Sonia Sanchez; Third World Press published Don L. Lee (now Haki R. Madhubuti). Margaret Walker published her poem, “For My People.” I understood how poetry allowed writers to speak from a deep place of longing for freedom and liberation. It took writing three books of poetry to see those interconnections in my own work—how I was grieving my losses and wishing to free myself.

How do you choose which topics to write about?

(LW): I think topics choose me. I have to care about something. I keep notebooks with quotes and phrases from my reading, combinations of words that are interesting. I listen to people’s conversations and write descriptions of individuals who I see on the street. These things converge and emerge in my writing.

Do you have a favorite project you’ve done before?

(LW): When I worked as a technical writer, I authored a blog called, “Tech Table Talk: It’s Not Over Your Head.” Outside of writing tedious manuals and deciphering the notes of software engineers, I wanted to challenge myself and make my job more interesting. I had the idea to create a blog aimed at explaining technology. This was at the beginning of what is now called the “Computer Revolution.” A lot of my friends who worked outside of technology felt intimidated by computers, similar to the discussion we are having today about AI– is it good or bad? Many people were suspicious. I decided to focus my blog on new and positive environmental technologies that I found interesting like capturing methane gas produced by cows and converting it into electricity. I reported on new software for desk top publishing that was being created by companies like Adobe. I felt I was providing a service, and at the same time, educating myself.

And lastly, who are your writing inspirations and why? 

(LW): I find inspiration from writers who love humanity—the writers who come to mind are Luis Alberto Urrea, Carolyn Forché, Joy Harjo—writers who are technically and otherwise brilliant like Virginia Woolf and Ursula K. Le Guin, or who care deeply for the environment like Terry Tempest Williams. I also draw inspiration from visual artists like Ruth Asawa who worked continually with new forms and explored the potential contained in each one.

Lenore’s poetry collections form a trilogy about love, loss, and being mortal: Cutting Down the Last Tree on Easter Island (West End Press, 2012); Two Places (Kelsay Books, 2014), and The Golem (Hakodesh Word Press, 2017). Her most recent poetry chapbook is From Malls to Museums (Ethelzine, 2020). Alexandria Quarterly Press published her prize-winning flash fiction chapbook, Holding on to the Fringes of Love.

Catherine Lawrence has spent the majority of her career as an Administrator in the field of Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). In this capacity, Catherine has helped students navigate University programs at the Undergraduate and Graduate levels. While working full time Catherine completed her Undergraduate and Graduate degrees (in the evening) receiving a B.S. in Communication, Political Science and History; as well as a M.S.Ed in Education (Reading, Writing and Literacy/Adult, Family and Community) with a certification as a Reading Specialist.

What led you to becoming a writer?

(CL): I have always been a writer in the academic setting while earning my graduate and undergraduate degrees; as well as writing as a requirement of my position as an administrator in the work place. The writing continued once I retired and became a Peace Corps Volunteer. I wrote and published weekly blogs of my experiences both as a Volunteer and as an Ex patriot; and continued to publish articles during this period with an on-line publication OpEdNews.com. 

However, the true writing fire came as a result of COVID. I know I am not alone as I have heard this story from so many people. As a result of being sequestered during the pandemic I was able to take classes to expand my knowledge of the craft as well as becoming aware of resources to publish.  COVID and all that came with it gave me the confidence to think that I could be a published author. 

Do you have a favorite work that you’ve written?

(CL): Yes, actually I have 2 articles that I am very proud of:

WINGS – Published in the November 2023 Issue of Airways Magazine. This piece chronicled my experience as a first time pilot of a single-engine Cessna.

Living “Out of the Box” – Published in 2016 in Peace Corps Passports Publication. This piece spoke to my feelings of living in the Peace Corps.

What inspires you as a reader and writer?

(CL): I am in awe of authors who can articulate their thoughts with words. Curiosity and a desire to understand not only how we live; but, why we live drives me at times to reading multiple books simultaneously on different topics. I often seek answers in books; but, I realize there really are no answers in books. However, reading does give me the tools to formulate my own answers giving me ideas and new perspectives.  As an aspiring writer it is my goal to emulate all that I derive from reading.

What topics do you usually delve into when writing?

(CL): My main source of material is myself and my experiences on topics such as travel, food, art, relationships, education, family, trauma, emotions, survival and teaching to name a few. I draw inspiration not only from my internal reflections; but, from everything around me. The world as my palette for writing. Also, I love being a member, for the past four years, of the WNBA Great Group Reads; and, have recently expanded my book reviewer skills to include NLAPW – National League of the American Pen Women by being given my first assignment as a book reviewer. 

You’ve held a lot of different job titles in your life. Does any of your past experiences influence your work? 

(CL): My Motto has always been “Buy experiences, not things”.  I am always seeking out new experiences as a means of entertainment and growth. So often I am asked: “How do you find time to do all the things you do?” and my response is that “I don’t have television”. Twenty plus years ago I gave away my televisions as an experiment moving into a studio apartment. This allowed me time to spent my time seeking out new adventures and writing about them. 

What is your favorite genre(s) to write and read?

(CL): I so enjoy reading historical fiction as well as (my guilty pleasure) murder. Books that deal with the human condition; how behavior is a predictor of events that drives me to see behind the facade of why we do what we do. Honestly, I would read any genre. As I said I write about myself and my experiences (as outlined in a previous response).

Once retired from her position at the UPenn in 2014, Catherine served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia. This 27 month program used her skills as an Educator in primary, secondary and University settings. Upon completion of the Peace Corps Catherine remained in the Republic of Georgia as an ex-patriot continuing teaching English and Reading. Catherine is also involved with the OSCE/ODHIR which observers elections in 57 States from Europe, Central Asia and North America. Its mandate includes many issues and Catherine is involved as an observer in one of their mandates which is to ensure free and fair election.

Catherine loves to travel and to-date has visited 55 countries. Her love of books and libraries have involved her in the WNBA where she was a facilitator of the monthly book group within WNBA; as well as a member of the Great Group Reads for the past four years. For the past year, Catherine has been working as a SP (Specialized Patient) at hospitals in the Philadelphia area. This role allows her to work with medical students, doctors, nurses and other members of the medical community to enhance their continuing education and medical school curriculum. Presently she is taking writing classes with the goal of publishing in the genre of Flash Fiction as well as honing her skills in journalism and interviewing.