MFA BLAST: Poetry Editor Mary Imo Stike featured in Connotation Press

Fearless HeartWood Poetry Co-Editor, Mary Imo Stike, Poetry '15, is featured in the current issue of Connotation Press. The issue features four of Mary's poems: "Poem Inspired by James Wright’s Fear of Working in the Glass Plant," "Far from Home," "Iron Patty," and "The Man in the Theater". The issue also features an interview with Stike by Davon Loeb, in which Mary discusses the influence of her American Indian heritage and the natural world upon her work, stating:

I am never far from my family’s history, so I embrace the fact that as I tell my story I am continuing our oral tradition. My exposure to poetry in my 60s deepened my connection to my native heritage, due especially to my study of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko and Joy Harjo. Much of my inspiration, what I call “the poetic opening” happens when I am firmly aware of my place in the natural world. I believe I am standing on my ancestors’ shoulders, and that knowledge makes poetic ties to my heritage exciting and of supreme importance.

Read Mary's work here at Connotation Press.

Mary Imo-Stike, Poetry '15, identifies as an American Indian, and a feminist. She worked "non-traditional" jobs as a rail worker, construction plumber, boiler operator and gas line inspector. Now retired from work-life, she obtained an MFA in Poetry from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2015, and is currently the poetry co-editor of HeartWood Literary Magazine. Her work has been published in Antietam Review, Phoebe, The Pikeville Review, Appalachian Heritage, and Cactus Heart, and will be included in the forthcoming issues of Young Ravens Review and riverSedge.