The WELL: inkwell.vue.287: Mary Mackey, Breaking the Fever

#149: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Wed 30 May 07 12:53

Wed, 30 May 2007 12:53:00 PDT

I saw this announced elsewhere and I wanted to spread the word:

This Friday, June 1st, at 7:30 p.m., Al Young and Mary Mackey will read their poetry at Escape from New York Pizza, 333 Bush Street (at Montgomery) in San Francisco. The reading is a benefit for After the Storm: The Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund, and is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Poetry Review and the NAACP. Al Young is the Poet Laureate of California.

A small donation ($5) entitles you to free pizza. Every dime you give goes to Katrina victims.

It's a wonderful opportunity to help those who are still suffering in the aftermath of Katrina and to hear some excellent poetry. Plus, pizza! [Read entire topic]

#148: Mary Mackey (mm) Sun 25 Mar 07 16:30

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:30:00 PDT

Thanks, Cynthia. [Read entire topic]

#147: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Tue 20 Mar 07 10:28

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:28:00 PDT

Wow, congrats on having Keillor read some of your work on the Writers Almanac, and on the boost it gave to your sales at Amazon, Mary! [Read entire topic]

#146: Mary Mackey (mm) Mon 19 Mar 07 22:11

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:11:00 PDT

In the last month (thanks to Garrison Keillor), my new collection of poetry, "Breaking the Fever" has gone from amazon's 500,000th something best selling book to 313,699. Wow, with a climb like that, I figure it will less than three months before I make number 1 . . . [Read entire topic]

#145: Mary Mackey (mm) Mon 19 Mar 07 22:11

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:11:00 PDT

On February 15 and 16 of this year (2007) Garrison Keillor read two of my poems on his morning program Writers Almanac. If you go to www.writersalmanac.org and click on Feb 15 and then on Feb 16 you can hear him read "Chicken Killing" and "My Methodist Grandmother Said". [Read entire topic]

#144: David Adam Edelstein (davadam) Wed 29 Nov 06 15:25

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:25:00 PST

Thanks, Mary and Carol. This has been a great conversation. We'd love to have you back! [Read entire topic]

#143: Mary Mackey (mm) Wed 29 Nov 06 13:53

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:53:00 PST

Thanks to Gail and the conference team for getting this together, and special thanks to rubi for her astute guidance of the conversation.

I'd love to return, take off my poetry cap (soft velvet) and put on my novelist's hat (civil war cap with brim, half blue half gray) and talk about "The Notorious Mrs. Winston" in particular and writing novels in general.

until then . . . [Read entire topic]

#142: Mary Mackey (mm) Wed 29 Nov 06 13:51

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:51:00 PST

My milestone book in terms of publishing was "A Grand Passion." It sold over a million and a half copies and made the New York Times best-seller list. On an artistic level, I think "The Notorious Mrs. Winston" is the best thing I've ever written.

Favorite poem? That's a really hard call. I think right now it's "Lynchburg" but "L. Tells All", "Breaking the Fever," and "When We Were Your Age" are right up there, and I love the images in "The Breakfast Nook." [Read entire topic]

#141: Allegro ma non tofu (pamela) Wed 29 Nov 06 11:37

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:37:00 PST

Wait, wait! One last question.

Every writer has milestone books--maybe they're commercial breakthroughs (so you know another publisher won't laugh in your face) or they're personal milestones. Have there been particular books of yours that were such for you? Can you say more?

Do you have a favorite among your own poems? (We won't tell the other poems if you do.) [Read entire topic]

#140: Hoping to be a goddess, but settling for guru (paris) Wed 29 Nov 06 10:52

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:52:00 PST

Am looking forward to the book, Mary! It was a real gift to read so much about the inner workings that result in your wonderful work. [Read entire topic]