May '16 Featured Interview |
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Interview with
Mary C. Leonard
Poet, Teacher and Mentor
About Mary:
Mary has been a prolific writer most of her life. She is a seasoned poet as well as a gifted essayist. Her poems, essays, short fiction, and mixed genre pieces have been published in numerous journals, including Hubbub, The Chronogram and Blotterature. She is also the author of four chapbooks: Twenty-First Century Flint (2 River), A Girl (Pudding House), The Sweet and Low Down (Antrim House) and The World That Is (Red Ochre Press).
Mary was a finalist in the Hill-Stead Museum's Poetry Contest, and she won first prize in the Lucy Cady Lamphier Contest.
Mary has also been a passionate and dedicated teacher for decades. She has taught at every level, from public high school to Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Since 1988, she has been an associate of the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, where she taught incoming freshmen in the Language and Thinking program from 1990 through 1998. She also teaches a summer program for students in grades 10 through 12 at Bard College at Simon's Rock. The Young Writers Workshop is now part of the National Writing and Thinking Network, the largest consortium of summer writing programs in the country. Mary has helped a multitude of aspiring writers to find their voice and style and to have confidence to reinvent the rules.
Mary also believes that writing can soothe the soul. She has led “Writing as Meditation Workshops,” for both beginners and professionals, since 2002.
Mary has stayed in touch with many of her former students, who continue to seek her guidance, encouragement and friendship.
Emily Dodi, editor and advertising manager, talked to Mary about her teaching philosophy, her passion for writing and all kinds of stuff.
By definition, an interview is one person asking questions and another person answering them. Person #1 takes careful notes, trying not to let her mind wander to thoughts of why person #2 would wear those shoes with that outfit. Person #2 gives honest, or not so honest, answers. Oftentimes, person #2 is thinking about how great her shoes look with her outfit. Phone interviews are an entirely different matter in that both people are doing something entirely different from listening to what the other person is saying – like making themselves a sandwich.
But then there is the experience of interviewing Mary Leonard. Mary is a poet, journalist, humorist, teacher and, within a few minutes of meeting her, she feels like an old friend. Your pencil begins to droop (yes, pencil) and your notepad starts to slip away. Suddenly you’re just two people talking. And listening. You discuss life and the things you love like family and words, things you question, things that are just totally random. Mary Leonard is an interviewer’s dream: eloquent, funny, unguarded, passionate, interesting, and interested in other people and the world. Unfortunately, at the end of the interview, after you’ve said goodbye to your new old friend, you realize your notepad is almost blank. You’ve been too busy listening to jot down every word. Luckily, Mary’s words — and the words she inspires you to find within yourself — linger long after the phone goes click.
The initial panic is replaced by a sense that this is exactly what is supposed to happen. A traditional interview just wouldn’t do for Mary Leonard. As a teacher, she has been inspiring students — from adolescents to adults - to defy convention for almost thirty years. She helps them find the courage to forget everything they’ve learned about “how to write” in order to find their own voice and language. Out goes the construct of the academic essay that is drilled into every student’s consciousness from the fourth grade on. It is scary at first, not having limitations, but in the end, Mary’s students discover what it means to write authentically. With pen and paper (see you later, laptop) they break down genres and forget academic constrictions to discover what it is they have to say and how they want to say it. They “go deeper in their writing by listening within.” They get to know themselves better and, interestingly enough, Mary says they realize “everybody here is like me!” That is part of Mary’s magic: finding one’s individuality leads to finding kinship with everyone else.
Mary has taught in all sorts of settings, but one of her favorites is leading “Writing as Meditation” workshops in which she shows people how to “work and play with writing as a way to shift habitual ways of thinking.” One of Mary’s friends called her workshop a “21st century consciousness raising group.”
Just talking with Mary is a consciousness raising experience. She makes defying convention and daring to be authentic seem easy. Why limit yourself? Why fit yourself into someone else’s idea of who you should be, what you should say, and how you should say it? Mary helps you see that the very notion of trying to be or sound like anything else but your true self is cheating yourself and the world from the most powerful thing you have to offer: YOU. Plus, it’s kind of silly and a waste of precious time. Miraculously enough, Mary does all this while being incredibly funny, warm and down to earth.
When she is not teaching others how to find their voice, Mary shares her own through poetry, essays, short fiction and mixed genre pieces. She told me that she is currently working on a book about her family called Italian-American: Living in the Hyphen. She has written restaurant reviews, articles, and humor pieces. “I love to write,” Mary says. Limiting herself to one genre would be as counterintuitive as limiting her voice.
I may never have been in an actual classroom with Mary, but I am her student. What I have learned: Find your voice. Write authentically. Be true. Be unafraid. Have fun. Notes be damned.
Mary has been a prolific writer most of her life. She is a seasoned poet as well as a gifted essayist. Her poems, essays, short fiction, and mixed genre pieces have been published in numerous journals, including Hubbub, The Chronogram and Blotterature. She is also the author of four chapbooks: Twenty-First Century Flint (2 River), A Girl (Pudding House), The Sweet and Low Down (Antrim House) and The World That Is (Red Ochre Press).
Mary was a finalist in the Hill-Stead Museum's Poetry Contest, and she won first prize in the Lucy Cady Lamphier Contest.
Mary has also been a passionate and dedicated teacher for decades. She has taught at every level, from public high school to Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Since 1988, she has been an associate of the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, where she taught incoming freshmen in the Language and Thinking program from 1990 through 1998. She also teaches a summer program for students in grades 10 through 12 at Bard College at Simon's Rock. The Young Writers Workshop is now part of the National Writing and Thinking Network, the largest consortium of summer writing programs in the country. Mary has helped a multitude of aspiring writers to find their voice and style and to have confidence to reinvent the rules.
Mary also believes that writing can soothe the soul. She has led “Writing as Meditation Workshops,” for both beginners and professionals, since 2002.
Mary has stayed in touch with many of her former students, who continue to seek her guidance, encouragement and friendship.
Emily Dodi, editor and advertising manager, talked to Mary about her teaching philosophy, her passion for writing and all kinds of stuff.
By definition, an interview is one person asking questions and another person answering them. Person #1 takes careful notes, trying not to let her mind wander to thoughts of why person #2 would wear those shoes with that outfit. Person #2 gives honest, or not so honest, answers. Oftentimes, person #2 is thinking about how great her shoes look with her outfit. Phone interviews are an entirely different matter in that both people are doing something entirely different from listening to what the other person is saying – like making themselves a sandwich.
But then there is the experience of interviewing Mary Leonard. Mary is a poet, journalist, humorist, teacher and, within a few minutes of meeting her, she feels like an old friend. Your pencil begins to droop (yes, pencil) and your notepad starts to slip away. Suddenly you’re just two people talking. And listening. You discuss life and the things you love like family and words, things you question, things that are just totally random. Mary Leonard is an interviewer’s dream: eloquent, funny, unguarded, passionate, interesting, and interested in other people and the world. Unfortunately, at the end of the interview, after you’ve said goodbye to your new old friend, you realize your notepad is almost blank. You’ve been too busy listening to jot down every word. Luckily, Mary’s words — and the words she inspires you to find within yourself — linger long after the phone goes click.
The initial panic is replaced by a sense that this is exactly what is supposed to happen. A traditional interview just wouldn’t do for Mary Leonard. As a teacher, she has been inspiring students — from adolescents to adults - to defy convention for almost thirty years. She helps them find the courage to forget everything they’ve learned about “how to write” in order to find their own voice and language. Out goes the construct of the academic essay that is drilled into every student’s consciousness from the fourth grade on. It is scary at first, not having limitations, but in the end, Mary’s students discover what it means to write authentically. With pen and paper (see you later, laptop) they break down genres and forget academic constrictions to discover what it is they have to say and how they want to say it. They “go deeper in their writing by listening within.” They get to know themselves better and, interestingly enough, Mary says they realize “everybody here is like me!” That is part of Mary’s magic: finding one’s individuality leads to finding kinship with everyone else.
Mary has taught in all sorts of settings, but one of her favorites is leading “Writing as Meditation” workshops in which she shows people how to “work and play with writing as a way to shift habitual ways of thinking.” One of Mary’s friends called her workshop a “21st century consciousness raising group.”
Just talking with Mary is a consciousness raising experience. She makes defying convention and daring to be authentic seem easy. Why limit yourself? Why fit yourself into someone else’s idea of who you should be, what you should say, and how you should say it? Mary helps you see that the very notion of trying to be or sound like anything else but your true self is cheating yourself and the world from the most powerful thing you have to offer: YOU. Plus, it’s kind of silly and a waste of precious time. Miraculously enough, Mary does all this while being incredibly funny, warm and down to earth.
When she is not teaching others how to find their voice, Mary shares her own through poetry, essays, short fiction and mixed genre pieces. She told me that she is currently working on a book about her family called Italian-American: Living in the Hyphen. She has written restaurant reviews, articles, and humor pieces. “I love to write,” Mary says. Limiting herself to one genre would be as counterintuitive as limiting her voice.
I may never have been in an actual classroom with Mary, but I am her student. What I have learned: Find your voice. Write authentically. Be true. Be unafraid. Have fun. Notes be damned.
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The Sweet and Low Down
© Mary C. Leonard Small gestures matter, and I’m not talking about flipping someone the bird. I got a note from the principal. See I can spell that because some teacher taught me the mnemonic, the principal is my pal, and he is. He thanked me in writing for my work with the teachers. I came home and cleaned my house lickety split. I was high on a small gesture. I feel this way in the Midwest. Last time I visited I was wandering in the produce section of Hinky Dinky or was it Piggly Wiggly—so corny out there. And the clerk yelled, Hi, how are you. I stepped back in a panic, thought I was caught squeezing the melons. But he was sincere. Day two in that market, I knew the checkout girl’s name and we exchanged some news of the day. I know this will sound like some Feel-Good New-Age advice, but why not smile at a stranger? I did try that in the supermarket, here in NYC, but the woman did not smile back, did not say hello to my hello. Oh well. I did not take it personally. That’s the other thing that matters, don’t take it personally. No one is out to get you or me. It’s a matter of being in the path of hurricanes, earthquakes, the robber, the suicide bomber, the terrorist. I have myself panicked now. My shoulders are up around my ears. I am worried, not angry, but in need of one small gesture. Thanks, I would love a cup of coffee, yes, with one sweet and low. |
For more about Mary's publications, her classes and her teaching philosophy, please visit her website. 
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