Poet

Teacher, creative writing (poetry and creative non-fiction), Western Washington University (Fairhaven College)

Teacher, literature, Whatcom Community College, Bellingham, Washington

Teacher, poetry, Academy for Lifelong Learning, Western Washington University

Mary won her seventh-grade poetry contest.
Decades later, she realized she really was a poet.

Foundations/Motivations: Was looking for creative inspiration
Experiences:  Discovered aptitude for poetry
Results: Teaches, continues to write and publish poetry

Foundations/Motivations

For years, Mary wrote and illustrated children’s books. But after a progressive illness developed in her left hand—her drawing hand—she realized she needed a change. Looking for a new source of creative inspiration, she explored various graduate programs. One thing that struck her about Sarah Lawrence was the application. “It was the only school where the application acted as if you might have had a real life between undergraduate and graduate school,” said Mary, who was 50 years old when she went back to school. “They allowed you to include something beyond what fits in those little lines.”

Undergraduate:

B.A., English (with Honors), San Jose State University (1971)

Work before Sarah Lawrence:

Mary’s children’s books include On the Stairs, which she illustrated and her sister wrote, and By the Sea, which Mary illustrated and wrote. She also lived abroad for many years, teaching English as a Second Language.

Experiences

Although Mary started in the creative nonfiction program, it was an undergraduate poetry workshop that changed everything. After seeing her work, the poetry professor asked: “Are you sure you’re not a poet?” Mary moved into the poetry program and flourished, even seeing her poetry published before she finished her master’s. “It feels like a medieval guild,” she said of Sarah Lawrence. “They’re teaching you the craft, you are one of them.” Mary loved the wide-ranging readings on campus and in nearby New York City, which, she said, “made sure we would keep open minds about what was exciting in poetry.”

Thesis:

“Offshore, the Boat”
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins was the mentor for Mary’s thesis, which included more than 80 poems, from formal to free verse. “Just to sit next to Billy and laugh and talk about poems, just to witness him as a poet in the world, kind of sets an example,” she said.

Results

After Sarah Lawrence, Mary was awarded the Wallace Stegner Fellowship, which allowed her to spend two years at Stanford working on her poetry, an opportunity she called “dreamy.” Her work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Rattapallax, Poetry Northwest, New England Review, and Poetry magazine, in addition to Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, a 2003 anthology of poems selected by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Today she teaches literature and poetry in Washington and continues to write, many of her poems influenced by the death of her husband in 2000 and her ongoing struggle to create a new identity in his absence.

Further education:

• Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry, Stanford University (2001–03)
• M.F.A., Writing, Sarah Lawrence College (2001)

Career:

• Teacher, creative writing (poetry and creative non-fiction), Western Washington University (Fairhaven College) (2004–present)
• Teacher, literature, Whatcom Community College, Bellingham, Washington
• Teacher, poetry, Academy for Lifelong Learning, Western Washington University

Portfolio:

• “Numbers”
  This poem was part of the Poet Laureate’s Project Poetry 180, which includes 180 poems that are now part of the Library of Congress. 
• “Restoration”
  This poem appeared in the New England Review.