ABOUT
ABOUT
Chancellor Florida State Poets Association
Florida Poet Laureate Volusia County
Winner of 2011 American Poet Prize
BOOKS
Smiling at the Executioner
Kelsay Books, November 2023
Smiling at the Executioner is a brilliant collection of poems inspired by the Stoic philosophy, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying these poems, which know how to live on their own, to take root in your heart. These are the kind of poems you hope you can remember to quote when in moments of uncertainty. McLatchey is not some one-trick theme artist who will sing you “I get knocked down, but I get up again”—NO!—she’s the one who will serve you images, sounds, and textures that make you want to read this book aloud. She will bring you the taste of bread, the promises of olives, the singing of hunger, and the love of desire.
—J.P. Dancing Bear, editor of Verse Daily
Beginner's Mind
From Shipyard to Harvard Yard: Embracing Endless Possibilities
Winner of the Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award
"Would the bad children please raise their hands?"
Discover why that statement and so many more will have you either smiling or crying as we examine the question, "How do we want teachers to teach, inspire, and guide our children?"
Told through the eyes of a very observant ten-year-old, Beginner's Mind is the how-to book we have been waiting for – a book that describes teaching the way we so passionately want it for our children.
For parents of young children, their teachers, homeschooling parents, teachers in training, and all adults interested in understanding the loving way that children can blossom in school while discovering their endless possibilities, this book is a must read.
"Rippling with wisdom and creative genius." Readers' Favorite 5-Stars
"Read this book and re-open your mind." - Robert Fleck, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Physics & Astronomy
"Anyone who has been influenced by a beloved teacher will savor this work; educators will especially appreciate it." - Library Journal
A "fourth grade teacher that many readers will wish they’d had"! - Kirkus
The Lame God
It is a hard fact that, to the artist, everything is material. We grit our teeth and use even the most personal catastrophes—our own and those of others—to make art. This is what the Classical authors did, and this is what M. B. McLatchey has done with her great subject in this book. The effect is powerful, and ultimately, The Lame God proves that if our traumatic experiences don’t destroy us, they can produce masterful works, in which human nature rises to its heights.
— From the foreword by Edward Field, American poet and essayist, and judge for the 2013 May Swenson Award
Winner of the 2013 May Swenson Award
Great Works of Ancient Greece
From the Heroic to the Classical Age
Against a backdrop of economic strife, political unrest and relentless war with neighboring regions, the ancient Greeks give the world philosophy – a preoccupation, as Socrates says, not with simply living, but with living well. As the readings in this text will demonstrate – from the ancient epics of the Warrior Age of heroes to the teachings of the great thinkers in the Golden Age of Athens – living well for the ancient Greeks will mean answering the same question again and again: “What should we call a good life?” For introductory-level students in the Humanities, as for the most accomplished scholars, this is a question for all of us.
Primary Sources
Great Works of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and Middle Ages
As a supplement to the wide variety of textbooks that students use in their Humanities courses, this collection of primary sources exposes readers to the original voices of the past. Primary Sources is a compilation of the most representative works from the Ancient Period through the Middle Ages, with annotations and introductions throughout to assist the reader. Significant readings from the modern era are also included to encourage the student to examine connections between ancient and modern ideas as well as discover the larger social and political questions that have defined Western civilization.
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Advantages of Believing
Crafted and assembled several decades ago, the verses in this collection chronicle an earlier time in the author’s life as well as an earlier – and in some ways, foundational – poetic. A poetic, as E.E. Cummings suggests, that is more a way of seeing things than saying things. While the settings for the poems shift between continents – America, England, and France – the perspective, the way of seeing things, is undeniably that of the foreigner, the tourist, the disoriented – and yet somehow stewarded – young scholar.
2014 FLP Open Chapbook Prize Winner - Finishing Line Press