Maria McLeod is the author of the poem, “These Bodies,” republished by Lefty Blondie Press as a limited-edition letterpress bookmark. This compelling poem was first published in McLeod’s chapbook, Skin. Hair. Bones., published by Finishing Line Press (2022). She spoke to us about living a writer’s life, where she turns for inspiration, and what poetry can do.
[This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.]
LBP: What does your current writing routine look like?
MM: In general, my writing exists in a cycle. An idea, topic or phrase surfaces, and then I write, fairly quickly, through a mess of a first draft. I will often go back to the draft several times, editing away, before I put it in a holding tank (a purgatory file folder on my laptop) to sit and stew. If I’m particularly obsessed, I’ll print it out and carry it around with me, reading aloud to myself and making editing marks on the document. If I’m lucky, a poet friend will look it over for me, and give suggestions, too. At some point, when I’m confident, that poem will make its way to my “submit” file folder, which means it’s ready to meet the masses.
LBP: Do you think of editing your own work and reading the work of others as part of your writing?
MM: Oh, yes. When I’m not writing new work, I’m either editing my own work or attending to the business of writing, which is submitting.
I do find inspiration, and even good instruction, from reading other writers. I’m currently obsessed with Diane Suess. This is typically how I move through poets and poetry. I want to read everything they’ve written. I want to learn as much as I can. “Modern Poetry” is so magical to me. I love her discursive construction, often culminating in ending with a wallop. Reading other writers is essential. It’s like being born into another form of thinking, which opens up my writer brain to different possibilities, which I liken to duende.
LBP: What are you working on now?
MM: I have a lot of sticks in the fire. Right now, I’m on sick leave from my work as a journalism professor, due to a second breast cancer, so I’m very committed to taking advantage of this time. I have one chapbook waiting in the wings, and potentially another hybrid chapbook. I have some other ideas going off like popcorn in my head related to writing a new play, a form of documentary theater based on interviews, but that may have to wait. I’m also generating some new poetry drafts for the purgatory folder. Oh, and I’m working on short stories, too.
LBP: How do you keep the fire going for an extended project?
MM: The best piece of advice I’ve been given about writing is this: FINISH IT! I generally abide by that, but it may take a while. I have dropped projects that I sometimes go back to years later. After I received my MFA at the University of Pittsburgh, I joined a poetry writing group, which I found to be a very helpful motivator in terms of generating new work.
LBP: Longhand or typed?
MM: I rarely write longhand anymore, but I appreciate the physical act of writing when I do put pen to page. Also, I can see my edits, my cross outs, where I started, what I abandoned, and what I’ve kept. Mostly, though, I’m writing with my fingers on a keypad, ticking it out.
LBP: Do you work in any other genres?
MM: My most interesting writing for pay was working as an oral historian, collecting people’s stories and then delivering them in edited Q&A format, but I’ve also ghost written a biography in addition to writing and publishing scholarly research.
I’m a poet first, last and always, but I also write short stories, flash fiction, monologues derived from interviews, and creative nonfiction. But poetry informs all my writing.
LBP: What can poetry do?
MM: Poetry is crucial. Poems open windows and let us look out upon a landscape of someone else’s making, a new world, or new way of understanding the existing world.
I also love Marie Howe’s take, which she shared on an episode of “On Being” with Krista Tippet: “The unendurable happens. People we love and we can’t live without are going to die. We’re going to die. One day we’re going to have to leave our children and die, leave the plants, and the bunnies, and the sunlight, and the rain and all that. I mean it’s unendurable. Art knows that. Art holds that knowledge.”
McLeod’s Recommendations
Book: “The Waters,” by Bonnie Jo Campbell. I’m a big fan of her work. I’ve read nearly everything she’s written.
Music: I’ll admit that much of my second chapbook, “Skin. Hair. Bones.,” was written under the influence of P.J. Harvey, whom I adore (watch her live at the Olympia Paris).
Museum: I love the Carnegie Museum of Art, which I visited often when pursuing my MFA at Pitt, but I also love the Detroit Institute of Art, which I visit nearly every time I visit home. In Vancouver, B.C., I’m wild for the Emily Carr collection on the top floor of the Vancouver Art Gallery. That’s a must see.
Film: I’ll see anything in which Tilda Swinton makes an appearance or stars.
Submit your work to the Lefty Blondie Press Editors' Choice Broadside Series
Open to self-identifying women or non-binary poets of any age & any publishing history!
October 1 - January 15
Submit up to 3 poems, all in one document
Start each new poem on a new page within the single document
No limit on form or topic, though 40 lines or less work better for the broadside format
Previously unpublished poems preferred
Previously published may be considered if author owns copyright and includes acknowledgement in Bio section of submission form
Simultaneous submissions accepted. Please notify us immediately if your poem is accepted elsewhere.
The poet of the selected poem will receive 5 (five) author copies & lots of praise, adoration, and promotion through social media, literary festivals, independent booksellers, & any other collaborations LBP seeks out.
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