Search Results

Published Poems (sorted): Click on column to sort. * publication forthcoming

Published Poems Title Journal Yr Award 1-800-THE-LOST American Poetry Journal 2012 2011 American Poet Prize - Winner A Drink of Water The Banyan Review 2023 A Glass of Absinthe Anthology of New England Writers 2005 A Kenning American Poetry Journal 2005 Aftercare Raintown Review 2021 Afterlives Pensive: A Global Journal... 2020 Featured in Verse Daily - 2024 Against Elegies National Poetry Review 2004 Featured in Verse Daily Amber Alert new south: Georgia St. Univ. Journal 2013 New South Writing Contest - Winner Another Inevitable Romance at Olduvai Gorge Avatar Review 2021 Anthem Harpur Palate 2018 Arcadia Cider Press Review 2008 At the Grieving Parents Meeting River Styx 2012 Rita Dove Poetry Award - Semi Finalist Aubade DMQ Review 2006 Bad Apology SWWIM 2017 Narrative Poetry Contest Semi Finalist; also featured in March 2020 #Tbt Balcony House Tampa Review 2023 Before the Common Era Quadrant 2021 Beginner's Mind Williams College Archives 1978 From the book "Advantages of Believing" Bingo Night for Missing and Exploited Children Beacon Press 2020 Blue Room Collective - "Grabbed Anthology" Calendar Plans Relief 2022 Catharsis Smartish Pace 2012 Erskine J. Poetry Prize - Finalist Ctrl+Z Florida Review 2021 Cues National Poetry Review 2020 Days Inn Shenandoah 2003 Emperical God Ruminate Magazine 2015 Ethos, Logos, Pathos Azure 2025 Lazuli Literary Group - First Place For a Dying Child International Human Rights Art Movement 2024 Rhonda Gail Williford Poetry Prize - 2nd Place Full Disclosure The Missouri Review 2025 Poem of the Week Girl at Piano Beauty/Truth: Ekphrastic Poetry 2006 House on Fire New Formalist 2008 Inventory Southern Poetry Review 2022 Invocation Cider Press Review 2021 Invocation Before a Day of Teaching Crab Orchard Review 2024 Is there a Final Exam? Azure 2025 Lazuli Literary Group - First Place Learning the Scriptures Naugatuck River Review 2018 Leaving the Mainland American Poetry Journal 2005 Melville's Reader Spoon River Poetry Review 2008 Morning in Three Movements The Banyan Review 2023 Museum Comstock Review 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award - Special Merit Oaths, Curses, Blessings Georgetown Review 2008 Ocracoke Briar Cliff Review 2016 Odalisque Comstock Review 2006 Muriel Craft Bailey Award - Finalist Ode for Amy Smithsonian Arts&Sciences 2019 Ode for My Department Chair Who Left a Face Shield on My Desk NCTE English Journal 2021 Ode for an Absent Student Naugatuck River Review 2020 Narrative Poetry Contest - Semi Finalist Ode for an Ode on a Grecian Urn Folio 2019 2019 Folio Editor's Prize - Winner Ode to the Heart Of Poets & Poetry, FSPA 2020 On Folding a Fitted Sheet Harpur Palate 2018 On Forgetting Ash Wednesday Iris Literary Journal 2021 On Recognizing Saints National Poetry Review 2005 Annie Finch Prize - Winner On Rewinding Emerson College Review 1975 Emerson Original Poetry Award - Winner Parousia Tar River Poetry 2016 Plan B Azure 2025 Lazuli Literary Group - First Place Pop Quiz Sky Island Journal 2024 Portable Labyrinth Aurorean 2014 Prometheus's Regret Halcyone, Black Mountain Press 2020 Rate My Professor: A Rebuttal Sky Island Journal 2023 Sanriku Willow Springs 2006 Vachel Lindsay Poetry Award - Winner Smiling at the Executioner Sky Island Journal 2020 Pushcart Prize Nominee 2020; Best of the Net Nominee 2021 Snow Globe Cider Press Review 2008 Sugaring Naugatuck River Review 2016 Robert Frost Award - Finalist Synonym for Marriage The Banyan Review 2023 Teaching the Tragedies Southern Poetry Review 2003 The Arrangement Beauty/Truth: Ekphrastic Poetry 2012 Robert Frost Award - First Runner Up The Bath Naugatuck River Review 2014 Narrative Poetry Contest - Semi Finalist The Breakfast Piece Drunken Boat 2015 The End of Knowing The Criterion 2021 The Lame God Spoon River Poetry Review 2008 The Peculiar Truth Grain 1985 The Rape of Chryssipus Spoon River Poetry Review 2007 Spoon River Editors' Prize - Winner The Rescue Comstock Review 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award - Special Merit The Retrieval Comstock Review 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award - Special Merit The Shadow Maker Sequestrum 2022 The Wisdom of the Cave SWWIM 2022 Trigger Warning Harpur Palate 2018 Urban Helicon Cold Mountain Review 2016 War in Eurasia Sequestrum 2022 Washday Ekphrasis 2006 We leave the beaches for the tourists, mostly Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art 2019 Where Winter Spends the Summer SWWIM 2019 * forthcoming

Selected Poems Display Poem 1-800-THE-LOST 2012 American Poetry Journal Display Poem 2011 American Poet Prize - Winner A Drink of Water 2023 The Banyan Review Display Poem A Glass of Absinthe 2005 Anthology of New England Writers Display Poem A Kenning 2005 American Poetry Journal Display Poem Aftercare 2021 Raintown Review Display Poem Afterlives 2020 Pensive: A Global Journal... Display Poem Featured in Verse Daily - 2024 Against Elegies 2004 National Poetry Review Display Poem Featured in Verse Daily Amber Alert 2013 new south: Georgia St. Univ. Journal Display Poem New South Writing Contest - Winner Another Inevitable Romance at Olduvai Gorge 2021 Avatar Review Display Poem Anthem 2018 Harpur Palate Display Poem Arcadia 2008 Cider Press Review Display Poem

Index Previous Next First Place - Lazuli Literary Group Is there a Final Exam? This was always the plan. The day and hour, of course, is out of our hands: Dickinson’s Carriage Man; Shelley’s desert sand. Imagine an untethering, a swansong reckoning. No proofs in stone. Almost certainly, you will be alone. The location, like an envelope you have been carrying, will be unsealed – a wakefulness, or a presence revealed: a man who taught you to field ground balls in the yard; devotions you fought and now whose storied part you want again. Or perhaps in a chance encounter with a schoolyard friend, a companion you abandoned for the faster track, the slap on the back. Our lives a history of what-ifs, lighthouses somehow missed. The final exam will not be timed. It will be scored blind. The final exam will leave you among the living, taking stock. Finishings all around; ashes still simmering – and a threshold to cross. Your gift if you use it, time : Gilgamesh, tunnelling trails to a city wall; Penelope’s loom and an ever- unravelling shawl. As for them, so you: there will be threshold guardians – a forest monster, suitors – reveals of the anima. Look these guardians in the eye. They are barriers to test your stamina. . Copyright © 2024 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved. Published in Azure , Vol. 8, March, 2025. Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest. Other poems in collection: "Ethos, Logos, Pathos" and "Plan B". Editor's comment: I enjoyed the steady strain of brilliance and the profound sense of wisdom that runs through each poem, well-delivered through narratively evocative language and clearly intentional choices in poetic form! To cloak modernity in a sense of magic is difficult to do, and yet I feel your poems do so in a very useful way. I hope our readers find in these pieces the impetus for an examined life. - Sakina B. Fakhri

Index Previous Next First Place - Lazuli Literary Group Ethos, Logos, Pathos Ethos Because we are different from our dogs that leave their scent on white fence posts; the raised hind leg, the pioneering boast. Because we stand upright, wonder at vaulted ceilings, songs in frescoes: A lifeless man sculpted in plaster and paint, lifting his flaccid hand to – what? An animating touch, a spark, self-understanding? Or a patriarch called to brave a flood, reclining like a Roman river god, not from too much wine, but from such a familiar forgetfulness of our limited time. Because we build pyramids with steps: discernment following the climb. Logos Because Athens never really fell. A radiant vase unearthed; centuries of burnt clay covering its storied face: a ring of epic battles – centaurs, half-man half-beast at the throat of a cool- headed Greek. The choice still the same: Nature untamed or the compass calibrated? The watchful peeling back to the urn’s Attic shape – not with landscape trenchers, but dental picks. Precision tools. A slow-moving, pointing trowel, a sieve. Because of the mindful coupling of powdery pieces: specs of gold from a goddess’s shield, a warrior’s bones too brittle to touch. The true story so reliant upon a delicate brush. Pathos Because the healer is the wounded one. Chiron, casualty of friendly fire, Heracles’s poisonous arrow: Sentenced, in his immortal state to a life of unfathomable sorrow – A perfect medic for the would-be hero: Jason, adrift at sea, until a centaur more adrift steels him: Push on, pass up the Sirens, regain a stolen throne . Asclepius, protégé, healer celebrity, and yet so alone – except for the healer more alone: Chin up, the physician’s heart cannot be helped; tend to your soul . Achilles, fed innards of boars to awaken a warrior core; to quiet his ego: bear marrow. Because for the life worth remembering the cure is an errant arrow. . Copyright © 2024 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved. Published in Azure , Vol. 8, March, 2025. Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest. Other poems in collection: "Plan B" and "Is There a Final Exam?". Editor's comment: I enjoyed the steady strain of brilliance and the profound sense of wisdom that runs through each poem, well-delivered through narratively evocative language and clearly intentional choices in poetic form! To cloak modernity in a sense of magic is difficult to do, and yet I feel your poems do so in a very useful way. I hope our readers find in these pieces the impetus for an examined life. - Sakina B. Fakhri

Award Winning Poetry Title Award Journal Year Plan B Lazuli Literary Group Writing Contest - First Place 2025 Azure: A Journal of Literary Thought 2025 Is there a Final Exam? Lazuli Literary Group Writing Contest - First Place 2025 Azure: A Journal of Literary Thought 2025 Ethos, Logos, Pathos Lazuli Literary Group Writing Contest - First Place 2025 Azure: A Journal of Literary Thought 2025 Ode for an Absent Student Narrative Poetry Contest - Semi-Finalist 2020 Naugatuck River Review 2020 Smiling at the Executioner Pushcart Prize Nominee 2020 2020 Sky Island Journal 2020 Afterlives Featured in Verse Daily - 2024 2020 Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts 2020 Ode for an Ode on a Grecian Urn 2019 Folio Editor's Prize - Winner 2019 Folio 2019 Bad Apology Also featured in March 2020 #Tbt 2017 SWWIM 2017 Sugaring Robert Frost Award - 2014 Finalist 2016 Naugatuck River Review 2016 The Bath Narrative Poetry Contest - Semi-Finalist 2014 Naugatuck River Review 2014 Amber Alert New South Writing Contest - Winner 2013 new south: Georgia St. Univ. Journal 2013 At the Grieving Parents Meeting Rita Dove Poetry Award - Semi Finalist 2012 River Styx 2012 Bingo Night for Missing and Exploited Children Blue Room Collective - "Grabbed Anthology" 2012 The Adirondack Review 2012 The Arrangement Robert Frost Award - First Runner Up 2012 Beauty/Truth: Ekphrastic Poetry 2012 Catharsis Erskine J. Poetry Prize - Finalist 2012 Smartish Pace 2012 1-800-THE-LOST 2011 American Poet Prize - Winner 2011 American Poetry Journal 2011 The Retrieval Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award - Special Merit 2008 Comstock Review 2008 The Rescue Muriel Craft Bailey Award - Special Merit 2008 Comstock Review 2008 Museum Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award 2008 Comstock Review 2008 The Rape of Chryssipus Spoon River Editors' Prize - Winner 2007 Spoon River Poetry Review 2007 Odalisque Muriel Craft Bailey Award - Finalist 2006 Comstock Review 2006 Sanriku Vachel Lindsay Poetry Award - Winner 2006 Willow Springs 2006 On Recognizing Saints Annie Finch Prize - Winner 2005 National Poetry Review 2005 Against Elegies Featured in Verse Daily 2004 National Poetry Review 2004 Beginner's Mind From the book "Advantages of Believing" 1978 Williams College Archives 1978 On Rewinding Emerson Original Poetry Award - Winner 1974 Emerson College Review 1974 * forthcoming

Award Winning Poetry - 2025 Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group 2024 Writing Contest - 1 of 3 - Plan B And so, we are not to be concerned about living – but about living well. - Socrates, Dialogue with Crito I watch them settle in. David’s Death of Socrates on the projection screen. Clashes of colors like warring teams: a white toga hanging from a teacher’s shoulder; the blood-red robe of a servant, who holds out the deadly drink. An ancient story, someone else’s fight. And yet, the old man who sits upright to take the servant’s chalice. The absence of malice. Gestures like haunting glyphs. We open ourselves to what ifs. What if someone you love, someone who taught you right from wrong; drew you a map of valleys not yet drawn; rowed with you on a winding river: the labyrinth of your young years. A chance to visualize: a wrestling coach; a theater teacher tirelessly recapturing missed lines. What if this person you love comes under fire. A mob seeds hatred, until – like trees that burn too easily – they are cheering for his demise. Why. Because he is winning in an art his accusers used to prize: logic as leak-proof as a Grecian vase. Because he is gaining fans. Because they can. Suppose, like an extended hand, the mob gives your mentor a choice: Disavow all you ever taught. Apologize – or hemlock. They grasp for the extended hand. Why not sign a pity release? Spare your children and wife. Surrender – just for the moment – what defines your life. The boat for escaping is waiting in the bay. The judges want their take. What will history say if friends do not save a man accused in the wrong? Who will teach virtue if the teacher of virtue is gone? Scales that tip and sway. It must have weighed on Crito’s heart to learn the decision was already made; to arrive in a drafty cell for a teacher- student review – so late. How he misread the old man sitting on his cot: alone and unafraid. The question on his teacher’s face: How much are you willing to trade ? We weave, instructed, heart persuaded. We leave it – not for the Midterm – almost certainly for a later day. Copyright © 2024 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved. Published in Azure , Vol. 8, March, 2025. Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest - First Place. Other poems in collection: "Ethos, Pathos, Logos" and "Is There a Final Exam?". Editor's comment: I enjoyed the steady strain of brilliance and the profound sense of wisdom that runs through each poem, well-delivered through narratively evocative language and clearly intentional choices in poetic form! To cloak modernity in a sense of magic is difficult to do, and yet I feel your poems do so in a very useful way. I hope our readers find in these pieces the impetus for an examined life. - Sakina B. Fakhri Previous Next

Award Winning Poetry - 2025 Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group 2024 Writing Contest - 2 of 3 - Is there a Final Exam? This was always the plan. The day and hour, of course, is out of our hands: Dickinson’s Carriage Man; Shelley’s desert sand. Imagine an untethering, a swansong reckoning. No proofs in stone. Almost certainly, you will be alone. The location, like an envelope you have been carrying, will be unsealed – a wakefulness, or a presence revealed: a man who taught you to field ground balls in the yard; devotions you fought and now whose storied part you want again. Or perhaps in a chance encounter with a schoolyard friend, a companion you abandoned for the faster track, the slap on the back. Our lives a history of what-ifs, lighthouses somehow missed. The final exam will not be timed. It will be scored blind. The final exam will leave you among the living, taking stock. Finishings all around; ashes still simmering – and a threshold to cross. Your gift if you use it, time : Gilgamesh, tunnelling trails to a city wall; Penelope’s loom and an ever- unravelling shawl. As for them, so you: there will be threshold guardians – a forest monster, suitors – reveals of the anima. Look these guardians in the eye. They are barriers to test your stamina. . Copyright © 2024 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved. Published in Azure , Vol. 8, March, 2025. Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest - First Place. Other poems in collection: "Ethos, Pathos, Logos" and "Plan B". Editor's comment: I enjoyed the steady strain of brilliance and the profound sense of wisdom that runs through each poem, well-delivered through narratively evocative language and clearly intentional choices in poetic form! To cloak modernity in a sense of magic is difficult to do, and yet I feel your poems do so in a very useful way. I hope our readers find in these pieces the impetus for an examined life. - Sakina B. Fakhri Previous Next

Award Winning Poetry - 2025 Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group 2024 Writing Contest - 3 of 3 - Ethos, Logos, Pathos Ethos Because we are different from our dogs that leave their scent on white fence posts; the raised hind leg, the pioneering boast. Because we stand upright, wonder at vaulted ceilings, songs in frescoes: A lifeless man sculpted in plaster and paint, lifting his flaccid hand to – what? An animating touch, a spark, self-understanding? Or a patriarch called to brave a flood, reclining like a Roman river god, not from too much wine, but from such a familiar forgetfulness of our limited time. Because we build pyramids with steps: discernment following the climb. Logos Because Athens never really fell. A radiant vase unearthed; centuries of burnt clay covering its storied face: a ring of epic battles – centaurs, half-man half-beast at the throat of a cool- headed Greek. The choice still the same: Nature untamed or the compass calibrated? The watchful peeling back to the urn’s Attic shape – not with landscape trenchers, but dental picks. Precision tools. A slow-moving, pointing trowel, a sieve. Because of the mindful coupling of powdery pieces: specs of gold from a goddess’s shield, a warrior’s bones too brittle to touch. The true story so reliant upon a delicate brush. Pathos Because the healer is the wounded one. Chiron, casualty of friendly fire, Heracles’s poisonous arrow: Sentenced, in his immortal state to a life of unfathomable sorrow – A perfect medic for the would-be hero: Jason, adrift at sea, until a centaur more adrift steels him: Push on, pass up the Sirens, regain a stolen throne . Asclepius, protégé, healer celebrity, and yet so alone – except for the healer more alone: Chin up, the physician’s heart cannot be helped; tend to your soul . Achilles, fed innards of boars to awaken a warrior core; to quiet his ego: bear marrow. Because for the life worth remembering the cure is an errant arrow. Copyright © 2024 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved. Published in Azure , Vol. 8, March, 2025. Winner of the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest - First Place. Other poems in collection: "Is there a Final Exam?" and "Plan B". Editor's comment: I enjoyed the steady strain of brilliance and the profound sense of wisdom that runs through each poem, well-delivered through narratively evocative language and clearly intentional choices in poetic form! To cloak modernity in a sense of magic is difficult to do, and yet I feel your poems do so in a very useful way. I hope our readers find in these pieces the impetus for an examined life. - Sakina B. Fakhri Previous Next

Award Winning Poetry - 2020 Featured in Verse Daily - 2024 Afterlives Only faces in little boxes now; blinking and peering into a starless space, not knowing what to do except perhaps, wave. Our host asks each box: What’s new with you? We talk, in turns. We share the virtual part – meaning the essence . It’s lovely. How this half-body huddle forces us to talk; how we conform, like grafted stalks, to a new light source. Dante insists our afterlives will be the now eternal. I study my husband’s framed face unselfconsciously. No one can see me gazing at our years. My sons, I see, have become men whose eyes are equable and clear. Time lapses freeze, in pixel images, expressions like true selves they made as toddlers. On TV, the Pope delivers the Mass to empty seats. How alone he looks – in spite of the live stream. No pilgrims, no Vatican City festooned with flowers; only police to hold the barricades. And yet, the numbers say, more watched and listened to the liturgy than ever attended. On sofas that sag, on laptops, in drive-thru caravans for bread and wine. An insistence on right seasons if only to prove we are different from our dogs. We hear a whistle too. Copyright © 2020 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved. Published in Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Art s , Issue #1, Fall 2020. Featured in Verse Daily ® with permission, 2024. Previous Next

MB McLatchey Poet Writer Teacher Poetry Workshops Florida M.B. McLatchey is an American poet living in Florida. She is Professor of Humanities at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Poet Laureate of Florida's Volusia County, Chancellor for the Florida State Poets Association, Arts & Wellness Ambassador for the Atlantic Center for the Arts , poetry reader for the Miami-based journal SWWIM, and a uthor of six books. More About Books Poetry IN THE NEWS Apr. 2025 - M.B. poems "Ethos, Logos, Pathos ", "Plan B ", and "Is There a Final Exam? " have been published in the newest issue of Azure: A Journal of Literary Thought. The poems were awarded First Place last fall in the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest . Thank you to editor Sakina B. Fakhri for her kind review of the collection. Mar. 2025 - While visiting Portugal this month M.B. and her husband had the good fortune to talk poetry, travel and politics over dinner with American poet Alfred Corn during his extended travel abroad. M.B. first met Alfred at Goddard College while completing her MFA back in the 90's. Feb. 2025 - Poetry Reading. M.B. will be guest reader at the Crazy Wisdom Poetry Circle event via Zoom next March 26th. Open to all, the reading will be followed by an open mic; participants are welcome to read a poem of their own or a favorite. Details here. J an. 2025 - Poets for Peace . Join M.B., local area poets, and musician Ray McNiece on Thursday January 23 at 7pm for Poetry & Music in Support of the Orphans in Ukraine . The event will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 56 North Halifax Drive, in Ormond Beach. Free admission; donations welcome. For more info, contact Joe Cavanaugh, jcavanaugh1@gmail.com . Jan. 2025 - M.B. is delighted to announce that her Spring semester poem for teacher friends, "Full Disclosure ", has been spotlighted by The Missouri Review as their Poem of the Week . Thank you to editor Kylan Rice . Jan. 2025 - M.B. is happy to announce that her poetry has been included in the recently released book Chameleon Chimera: An Anthology of Florida Poets . Thank you to editor Lenny DellaRocca for celebrating Florida poets this way. Available now on Amazon and other bookstores. Dec. 2024 - M.B. is honored to announce that her poem "For a Dying Child " has won the Rhonda Gail Williford Poetry Prize second place sponsored by International Human Rights Art Movement . Thank you to Founding Executive Director Thomas Block for the focus he brings to social change. Nov. 2024 - We are saddened today, the last day of November, to report that we have lost one of our own. Dr. David B. Axelrod , who has shared the Volusia County Poet Laureate position with M.B. since August of 2015, has passed away. David is the author of 24 books of poetry and has numerous achievements in Florida, New York, and internationally. We will miss his work and good humor. Nov. 2024 - Thank you all for the wonderful turnout of poets, writers, and dear friends at the New Smyrna Beach Library to hear M.B.'s creative writing presentation showcasing National Novel Writing Month . A special thanks as well to McKayla Howard Ely for organizing the event. Well done! Nov. 2024 - The Healing Power of Poetry . A heartfelt thank you to Sonja Jean Craig for her gracious article showcasing M.B.'s talk at the Women's Health and Breast Cancer Care Event last month in Central Florida. The event was hosted by the Atlantic Center for the Arts and AdventHealth and appeared in the November 2024 issue of Of Poets & Poetry . Nov. 2024 - Obrigado!! Thank you!!... for the beautifully crafted translations of M.B.'s poetry into Portuguese by Brazilian-American friend and writer, Kátia B. de Mello Gerlach. Her translations can be found in the current issue of Quiasmo , a Galician-Lusophone journal. "Obrigada Kátia." Nov. 2024 - TBT . Today we throw back to M.B.'s keynote speech at the FSPA annual conference four years ago and to a wildly generous review by Al Rocheleau (then president of FSPA). You can enjoy the speech's celebration of poet Seamus Heaney in this video , adapted from the original keynote. Nov. 2024 - M.B. poems "Ethos, Logos, Pathos ", "Plan B ", and "Is There a Final Exam? " have won First Plac e in the Lazuli Literary Group's Fall 2024 Writing Contest and will appear in Azure next February. Thank you to editor Sakina B. Fakhri for her kind review of the collection. Nov. 2024 - Poetry as a Dream Space - M.B. is conducting poetry workshops at The HUB on Canal in New Smyrna Beach on Wednesdays throughout the month of November. Spots are still available. Sign up soon! Details here. Oct. 2024 - M.B. is honored to announce that her poem "Full Disclosure " will be featured next January in The Missouri Review's Poem of the Week series. Robert Olen Butler calls The Missouri Review "one of the best literary journals in the world.” Thank you to Associate Editor Kylan Rice, PhD. Oct. 2024 - Women's Health and Breast Cancer Care Event. The Atlantic Center for the Arts is partnering with AdventHealth NSB on October 2 for an evening focused on mindfulness and women's health . As guest speaker, M.B. will explore the healing power of creativity. Oct. 2024 - M.B.'s Poem "Invocation Before a Day of Teaching " has been published in the Fall issue of Crab Orchard Review . Southern Illinois University describes its journal as "not just a publication; it's a literary journey that delves into the heart of storytelling." Thank you to editor Allison Joseph. Sep. 2024 - FSPA Annual Conference in October. We're only weeks away from Florida's next annual poetry conference, hosted by the Florida State Poets Association. The conference is located this year on the beautiful St. Johns River in Palatka, Florida, October 25 - 27 , 2024 . M.B. and others will be conducting several writing workshops. Register today! Details and full agenda here . Aug. 2024 - Poetry Workshops at The HUB on Canal . M.B. will conduct a series of her Florida Loves Poetry!! ™ workshops on consecutive Wednesdays throughout the month of November at The HUB in New Smyrna Beach. Register soon! Space is limited. Details and sign up here . July 2024 - Upcoming Workshops! M.B. is excited to announce that she will be offering several workshops this Fall. Locations include: The Hub on Canal (November), The Atlantic Center for the Arts (October), the New Smyrna Beach Library (November), and the Florida State Poets Association's Annual Conference (October). June 2024 - Verse Daily has selected M.B.'s poem "Afterlives " for recognition this month! The poem is taken from her latest collection Smiling at the Executioner . Thank you to editor J.P. Dancing Bear. Apr. 2024 - It's National Poetry Month! M.B. will host ACA Poetry Workshops every Wednesday night this month from 4pm to 6pm at the Harris House in New Smyrna Beach. Feb. 2024 - Poetry Night . All lovers of poetry are invited to join M.B. and Orlando area poets on Wednesday evening, Feb. 28, for Central Florida's inaugural Patio Poets event at the beautiful Venue on Lake Lily in Maitland, Florida. M.B. will Guest Poet at 7pm, immediately followed by an Open Mic for all Florida poets until 9pm. Admission is $7. Come help make this new monthly event a huge success and show everyone how much Florida Loves Poetry!!! . Location : 641 Maitland Ave S, Maitland, FL 32751 Jan. 2024 - With over fifty attendees present, The Hub on Canal featured M.B. at this month's Open Mic Poetry Night for a fun night of friends, poetry and wine. Thank you to Pamela and Mary Jane for hosting and to all the wonderful poets that showed up for Open Mic. Jan. 2024 - M.B. is honored to announce that her poem “Pop Quiz " has been published in the Winter 2024 issue of Sky Island Journal . A warm and heartfelt thank you to Editors Jeff and Jason. Dec. 2023 - Purple Ink Press has announced that it will be publishing M.B.'s poem "Rate My Professor: A Rebutta l" in a print version of Chameleon Chimera , an Anthology of South Florida Poets curated by Lenny DellaRocca. Dec. 2023 - Florida Loves Poetry!!! Join M.B. in exploring how writing in poetic forms – chants, odes, haikus, epistolary poems, and more – can unleash your most authentic voices. Beginners to advanced-level poets are invited. Sponsored by Atlantic Center for the Arts. SIGN UP NOW Four sessions: Wednesdays, April 3, 10, 17, 24. 4pm-6pm ACA Harris House: 214 S. Riverside Drive, New Smyrna Beach Nov. 2023 - BOOK RELEASE!! M.B.'s newest poetry collection, Smiling at the Executioner , has just been released and is available from Kelsay Books as well as your favorite book outlets. See why the editor of Verse Daily says, "These are the kind of poems you hope you can remember to quote when in moments of uncertainty." —J.P. Dancing Bear Nov. 2023 - M.B. and Edite Cunhã are happy to announce that their recent translation of poems by Portuguese poet Maria Teresa Horta has been published in the British journal Cable Street . Edite and M.B. have been collaborating on Portuguese translations since they first met in Lisbon in 2017. Nov. 2023 - " The best poetry workshops in Florida" are underway at The HUB on Canal. Nov. 2023 - M.B.'s poem "Balcony House " has been published in the Fall issue of Tampa Review. Thank you poetry editor Jodi Johnson. Nov. 2023 - Fall Festival of the Arts . Come listen to poetry readings by M.B. and Co-Poet Laureate Dr. David Axelrod along with other local poets on Sunday 11/19/23 at the Chess Park Stage next to the courthouse in downtown Deland. 12noon to 1pm. Oct. 2023 - Reader's Favorite has awarded 5 Stars to M.B.'s newest poetry collection, Smiling at the Executioner . In their words: "Smiling at the Executione r is a great selection for readers who enjoy eloquently written poems within a work of collected thought." Due out later this year from publisher Kelsay Books . Sep. 2023 - M.B. and fellow Regal House author Ginger Pinholster were welcomed to a warm crowd of over fifty attendees to their book readings and book launch at the Barnes & Noble in Tomoka Town Center last week. In attendance was ERAU's president and his wife as well as several deans and students from the university. M.B. shared a passage from Beginners's Mind and some poetry from her upcoming collection, Smiling at the Executione r. A heartfelt thanks to Ginger for organizing such a wonderful event. Sep. 2023 - M.B. is happy to announce that The Banyan Review has published her poetry in their Fall 2023 issue. The poems can be viewed here: "A Drink of Water ," "Synonym for Marriage ", "Morning in Three Movements ". Aug. 2023 - Thank you to The Banyan Review and guest editor Terry Lucas for including some of M.B.'s most recent poetry in their upcoming release next month. Poems included are: "A Drink of Water ," "Synonym for Marriage ", and "Morning in Three Movements ". The Banyan Review is an online, international journal that promotes poetry, art, and the natural world. July 2023 - Poetry Workshops. M.B. is excited to announce that she will be hosting a new series of poetry workshops this Fall at The HUB on Canal . The four workshops will run on consecutive Wednesdays from 4:30 to 6pm starting on October 25, 2023, continuing to November 15. Serious poets and writers of all skill levels are welcome. See why many are calling these the best poetry workshops in Florida . Seating is limited, so sign up soon . Nominal fee required. July 2023 - Upcoming Poetry Reading. M.B. will guest poet the Open Mic Poetry Night series at The HUB on Canal next January 20 at 5pm. For details about the monthly event, contact Mary Jane at 386-214-6409. July 2023 - Thank you to the South Florida Poetry Journa l and to curator Lenny DellaRocca for including M.B. in An Anthology of Florida Poets . Her poem "Rate My Professor: A Rebuttal" has been featured in the collection. June 2023 - Refreshments and Readings - Barnes & Noble, Daytona Beach, Saturday, Sept. 16. M.B. will be joining author Ginger Pinholster to read from their upcoming works. Ginger will be launching her book Snakes of St. Augustine and M.B. will read from her newest collection, Smiling at the Executioner . June 2023 - M.B. is happy to announce that her poem "Balcony House " has been accepted for publication in Tampa Review , Florida’s oldest continuously published literary journal. Thank you to editors Jodi Johnson and Yuly Restrepo Garcés for their strong support of literature and visual arts. May 2023 - The ACA Poetry Workshop Testimonials for 2023 are in and they are lovely! If you have a moment, you can check here to see what the participants had to say. Apr. 2023 - Writing the tops of their heads off!!! A record number of poets and writers came out to Harris House this year to make the ACA Poetry Month series a huge success. Info about the series can be found at Atlantic Center for the Arts . If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. - Emily Dickinson Mar. 2023 - M.B. is excited to announce that Kelsay Books will be publishing her newest book of poetry, Smiling at the Executioner. The release is scheduled for later this year in November. Mar. 2023 - The ACA poetry workshops scheduled for April are sold out. You can send an email to mbmclatchey@gmail.com if you would like to get onto the standby list. Feb. 2023 - It's almost that time of year again! April is poetry month and that means poetry workshops at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. See why some are calling these the best poetry workshops in Florida. M.B. will host the workshops every Wednesday evening throughout April. Admission is free but space is limited, so be sure to reserve your spot soon. You can find out more and register today on ACA's poetry page . Jan. 2023 - M.B.'s poem “Rate My Professor: A Rebuttal" has been published in the 2023 Winter Issue of Sky Island Journal . Thank you to its wonderful editors, Jeff Sommerfeld and Jason Splichal. Jan. 2023 - It is with heavy heart that we notify you that local poet Robert Calabrese has passed away. Highly admired by all who knew him, Bob had a gentle soul, was a dear friend to all, and without question, was a highly gifted poet. Bob and his poetry will be remembered at this month's Open Mic Poetry Night at The Hub on Canal on January 21st. Upcoming Events - 2025 March 26, 2025 - Poetry Reading M.B. will be guest reader at the Crazy Wisdom Poetry Circle event via Zoom. Open to all, the reading will be followed by an open mic. Details here. Florida Loves Poetry !! ™ 2024 - The Healing Power of Poetry Loving Poetry at The HUB on Canal Barnes & Noble 2023 - Book launch and signing Writing the tops of their heads off at Harris House Poetry month 2023 at Atlantic Center for the Arts Events Older News Older News

Can I search for something on this website? Absolutely. If you are using a mobile device, use the "Search" box located at the bottom of this page. If you are using a web browser, the search box will also be available in the header section of every page. Link not working? Please excuse us while we continue to renovate this website. Some links may still connect to MB's old website. These are being remediated, one by one. - Wix design team Who are the Corvid Writers? The Corvid Writers grew out of an MFA program at Goddard College in Vermont where M.B. and its founding members met as graduate students. Learn more about them here. x