ABOUT
ABOUT
Chancellor Florida State Poets Association
Florida Poet Laureate Volusia County
Winner of 2011 American Poet Prize
ABOUT
M.B. McLatchey is a poet and writer with a lifelong passion for literature, philosophy, and ancient and modern languages. She is a Professor of Humanities at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S. Ambassador to the HundrED global foundation, Chancellor for the Florida State Poets Association, Poet Laureate of Florida's Volusia County, Arts & Wellness Ambassador for the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and poetry reader for the Miami based journal SWWIM. She has received numerous awards, including the 2011 American Poet Prize by The American Poetry Journal, the 2012 Robert Frost Award, and was recently nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize as well as Best of the Net award. In 2015, she was a Poet Laureate nominee for the State of Florida. Often promoted as offering "The best poetry course in Florida!", she is featured in the July 2017 issue of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP).
M.B. is a graduate of Harvard University with over 30 years of college teaching. She has also worked as a speechwriter for a state senator, as a reporter for a daily newspaper, as a magazine editor for a major publisher, as a reader and book reviewer for poetry journals, and as a Board of Trustees member for a private college in Vermont. She has authored many literary reviews, compiled text books for Humanities courses, conducted poetry and writing workshops throughout the United States, helped mentor young poets, judged numerous poetry contests, and is a frequent contributor to books on writing, poetry, and teaching.
Her debut poetry collection The Lame God was awarded First Place in the 16th Annual May Swenson Poetry Award by Utah State University Press in 2013. She was awarded the 2014 FLP Chapbook Prize by Finishing Line Press for her book Advantages of Believing. Her book, Beginner's Mind, published in 2021 by Regal House Publishing, was awarded the Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award as well as the Readers' Favorite Five-Star Award. Her newest book, Smiling at the Executioner, is scheduled for release in December 2023 by Kelsay Books.
M.B. has received numerous academic teaching awards including the Harvard University Danforth Prize, the Harvard/Radcliffe Prize for Literary Scholarship, and the Brown University Elmer Smith Award. Her most recent poetry awards include the Annie Finch Prize for Poetry, the Spoon River Poetry Review’s Editors’ Prize, the Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award, the Vachel Lindsay Poetry Award, the Folio Editor's Prize, as well as Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations.