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Press Release
Contact: Mike Maggio 703-930-5214
mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net
For Immediate Release – November 1, 2024
Acclaimed DC-based author Mike Maggio is set to launch his new gothic novel, Woman in the Abbey, in February 2025. Published by Vine Leaves Press, the story is set in an ancient crumbling abbey occupied by an unearthly being, a mysterious old woman and the ghosts of those whose lives have been lost to its secrets throughout the centuries.
Woman in the Abbey has garnered praise for its fidelity to the gothic tradition. Norah Vawter, DC-based author and editor, states that the story is “an old-school gothic novel packed with horror, romance, and beautifully overwrought emotion.” Elizabeth Bruce, writer and theater producer and author of Universally Adored & Other One Dollar Stories, says that Woman in the Abbey `is a “go-to novel for aficionados of the underworld visited upon a crumbling abbey filled with the tortures of the damned.“ And Edward Belfar, author of the award-winning novel A Very Innocent Man, says that “Mike Maggio’s Woman in the Abbey delivers everything that a fan of gothic fiction could want—a crumbling, haunted abbey, an endangered heroine, supernatural intervention, unrelenting suspense. It will have you guessing till the end.”
Originally from New York City, Mike Maggio settled in Herndon, Virginia afte0r moving to Los Angeles and then traveling the world in search of adventure. He is the author or 11 books, including poetry, novels and short stories. A retired English professor who has taught at USC and Northern Virginia Community College, he has dedicated his life to the arts with an emphasis on promoting up-and-coming writers and artists. His ground-breaking collaborative work, cloudism, was produced at the now-defunct Soundry in Vienna, Virginia and was later performed at Woolly Mammoth and Capital Fringe. The success of cloudism led to other collaborations with poets, artists, actors and musicians including Music for Mummies, Springtime in Winter (reviewed in the Washington Post), Peace and Identity (with Antonella Manganelli) and a bilingual production called La Guerra è Pace\La Guerra e Pace which was performed with an international cast in Naples, Italy.
In 2022, his poetry collection, Let’s Call It Paradise, won the International Book Award for Contemporary Poetry. His fiction, poetry and book reviews have appeared in The Montserrat Review, Pleiades, Apalachee Quarterly, The Northern Virginia Review, The L.A. Weekly, The Washington CityPaper, Beltway Quarterly and many others. He writes for Washington independent Review of Books and is an associate editor at Potomac Review. His web site is www.mikemaggio.net.
For an electronic Advanced Reader Copy or more information or to arrange an interview/reading/’discussion, please contact the author at mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net or 703-930-5214.
Publication date: February 4, 2025
Genre: Gothic
Paperback: ISBN: 978-3-98832-129-9
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Space Still Available for Poetry Workshop
Space is still available for the poetry workshop I am offering duringthe coming weeks. We have four participants as of now, and there is room for six more.
Here’s what we will be doing:
- We will read selected poems and discuss the poetics involved. We will focus on how the prosody of the poems informs their meaning.
- Participants will write a poem each week based on specific assignments related to our discussions of prosody.
- Each poem will be critiqued by me.
- Participants will critique each other’s poems in writing and send back to the participant.
- Each week, we will workshop the poems that were written by the participants. This will be a live discussion.
- We will concentrate on elements of prosody. Regareding this, there will be some targeted discussions on prosody (metrics, imagery, anaphora, etc.).
- All sessions will be held online
- Tentative start date: October 20 (days and time TBD)
- Cost: $300
For more information or to sign up, email me at poem@mikemaggio.net
I look forward to your participation.
Poetry Workshop
I am now accepting participants for an upcoming poetry workshop to be held online. The workshop will consist of short lectures as well as discussion on prosody, weekly assignments, personal critiques of everyone’s work as well as by the other workshop participants and in -depth discussion of everyone’s work.
The workshop is limited to 10 participants will meet weekly for one and a half hours (time and day TBD) for 10 weeks.
For more information or to submit your work for consideration, contact poem@mikemaggio.net.
I look forward to working with you.
Last Call for Speaking of Love
Registration is still open for Speaking of Love: A Poetry Seminar and Workshop. Class starts next Sunday, September 8, at 10 AM and will continue for six Sundays. All classes will be online.
To register or for more information, contact me at mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net.
Shepherd: For Authors
I was recently contacted by Ben Shepherd whose passion for books led him to creating a web site to help promote the work of contemporary authors by not just listing their books but by having them choose their favorite writers whose work is akin to theirs. Writers don[‘t just choose their influences, however; they also explain their choices, leading readers into insights into the author’s creative wellspring. These associations lead to avenues of interest for readers, leading them on a path to the author’s own work. The purpose is to create interest in your book as well as sales.
I recently participated in this exercise and my “page” was just published for my novella, The Appointment.
You can learn more about Shepherd here and here. Hopefully, this will provide an avenue for our own work.
Now Accepting Enrollment for Love Poetry Workshop
Enrollment is now open for Speaking of Love: A Poetry Seminar and Workshop. Together, we will explore the many facets of love poetry, from Sappho up to the present, participate in writing exercises and write poems related to love.
Class begins in September and will be conducted online. The cost for this 6 week workshop is $225.
To enroll, simply click on the PayPal button to submit your enrollment fee. Class is limited to 10 poets.
For more information, contact me at mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net.
I look forward to working with you.
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The Missing Slate and a Family in Gaza
The Missing Slate is an online literary magazine based in Pakistan. As stated on its site, it’s mission is to support “marginalized communities through actively uplifting and standing in solidarity with [those] communities. The core and editorial team that helps in the realization of this dream does so by maintaining a platform for free expression for literary work and art, nurturing an environment where diverse voices can be heard without censorship or suppression.”
Currently, The Missing Slate’s mission is to sponsor a family in Gaza, and they are now running a fundraiser on gofundme.
You can read more about The Missing Slate, their mission, the gofundme effort as well as their current issue by clicking here.
Speaking of Love: A Poetry Seminar and Workshop
In celebration of my forthcoming book, A Brief Gazelle: Poems of Love and Grief, I am offering an online seminar and workshop called Speaking of Love: Love Poetry Across the Ages. This course will explore poetry dealing with love, in its many manifestations, through a series of lectures, readings, discussions and workshops. Participants will read and discuss poems, from the past up to the present, that relate to the subject of love in order to get a grounding for the different approaches to love poetry.
Topics will include:
- What constitutes a love poem?
- Why write love poems?
- Are love poems only about love?
Participants will be assigned weekly exercises and will write at least one love poem which will be critiqued and discussed by the other poets.
Sessions will be held online on six Sundays beginning in September.
- Cost: $225
- Format: Online
- Session length: 2 hours per session from 10-12 EST
- Dates: Sept 8, 15, 22, 29, Oct 6 and 13
- Limit 10 poets
For more information or to register, contact mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net
Bio:
Mike Maggio is an assistant adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College, an associate editor at Potomac Review, and a graduate of George Mason University’s MFA program in Creative Writing His latest collection of poetry, Let’s Call It Paradise, won the International Book Award for Contemporary Poetry in 2023. His newest collection, A Brief Gazelle: Poems of Love and Grief. is forthcoming from San Francisco Bay Press. His publication credits include fiction, poetry, travel and reviews in many local, national and international publications including Potomac Review, The L.A. Weekly, The Washington CityPaper, and The Washington Independent Review of Books. His full-length fiction publications include a novel, The Wizard and the White House (Little Feather Books, 2014), a novella, The Appointment (Vine Leaves Press, 2017), and a collection of short stories, Letters from Inside (Vine Leaves Press, 2019). His web site is www.mikemaggio.net.
