Poet Mary Pacifico Curtis is chatting with me today about her new collection, Hawk’s Cry (a poetry collection from Finishing Line Press).
Bio:
Mary Pacifico Curtis is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, seasoned branding and PR professional, and author of poetry and non-fiction. Published work includes her recent memoir, Understanding Moonseed, two poetry chapbooks, Between Rooms and The White Tree Quartet and numerous pickups in literary magazines and anthologies. Hawk’s Cry is her first full-length poetry collection.
Accolades include recognition as a 2012 Joy Harjo Poetry Finalist (Cutthroat Journal), 2019 Poetry Finalist in The Tiferet Journal, non-fiction finalist in The 48th New Millenium Writings contest and a 2021 non-fiction finalist in The Tupelo Quarterly Open.
At 24, she founded Pacifico, Inc., which grew into one of Silicon Valley’s largest independently owned PR and branding firms with clients that included many global technology leaders. When both daughters went to college, she earned an MFA in 2012 in creative writing from Goddard College.
Curtis lives with her husband in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains on a terraced property where she grows vegetables and fends off gophers while admiring deer, coyotes, wild turkeys and the occasional bobcat.
Welcome, Mary. What do you enjoy most about writing poems?
I love the moment of inspiration, the struggle to think clearly when there’s often emotion, and the moment of reaching an authenticity that I hadn’t known.
Can you give us a little insight into a few of your poems – perhaps a couple of your favorites?
My favorite poems in this collection are On Death Row, Shepherd, Shepherd Where Are You, The Shepherd’s Refrain and Baritone in St. Bart’s.
On Death Row existed for quite a while and was a good poem but taking on the ‘voice’ of the cell, the lawyer and Troy Davis himself made it a more immediate and exciting poem to me. Shepherd, Shepherd began life as a Whitmanesque poem in 2017. As you can see it was pared down to an essence which finally appeared in Narrative Magazine in 2021. The Shepherd’s Refrain needed to be written in response to the courageous Greta Thurnburg. A perfect poem for the hawk to pull the book together. Baritone in St. Bart’s is simply one that I love.
What form are you inspired to write in the most? Why?
I write equally in free verse and prose non-fiction. Recently I’ve experimented with prose poems which suit me, and it’s fun to play around with form once in a while. I’ve got a ghazal and a triolet that were fun to write.
What type of project are you working on next?
I have a second collection of memoir/essays very close to submittal stage and a gallery of poems waiting to be curated.
When did you first consider yourself a writer / poet?
When I was two. And then again when I was 52. But my advertising/PR career required a lot of a very different kind of writing.
How do you research markets for your work, perhaps as some advice for not-yet-published poets?
My simple advice is to submit. Don’t be shy. A no may not be about your work but rather the fit for a particular publication at that time.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I have to have a clean, uncluttered desk.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer.
A business owner.
For a brief moment, the first woman president of the US.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
If you want to write, sit down and write.
Have fun.
Links:
Website | Finishing Line Press | Barnes and Noble | Amazon | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook