Mary Lou Sanelli is the author of six poetry collections. Her poetry has been published widely and was recently included in two anthologies of Western Women Writers published by Houghton Mifflin. Her latest collection, Craving Water, Poems of Ordinary Life In A Northwest Village, is an intimate glimpse of life in the Northwest. Her collection Close At Hand was chosen as one of nine Northwest titles in 2005 to be put into Braille by The Seattle Public Talking Book Library. Her newest collection, Small Talk, is forthcoming from High Plains Press in 2008.
Sanelli also works as a public speaker, columnist, and radio commentator. Her latest book is Falling Awake: An American Gets A Grip On The Whole Changing World One Essay At A Time (Aequitas Books, NY) which was recently selected as "one of the most fabulous Pacific NW books" by Seattle writer/reviewer Lesley Thomas.
She has earned a solid reputation in the literary community through a steady commitment to writing and through twenty years of successful public readings.
She is a regular columnist for Art Access, The Peninsula Daily News, The Queen Anne News, and The Belltown Messenger. Her essays have also appeared in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, The Seattle Times, The Seattle Post Intelligencer, Crosscut, Northwest Woman Magazine, Peninsula Life Magazine, and other publications.
Her commentaries have been aired on Weekend Edition, NPR, as well as regularly on KSER FM, KONP AM, and on Ladybug Live, Internet Radio. In 2001 & 2002 she was a regular commentator on WEEKDAY: KUOW: Northwest Public Radio.
Honorariums include an Artist Trust GAP Award, A Jack Straw Writers Award, The Skagit River Poetry Festival, The Seattle Poetry Festival, The Seattle Bumbershoot Festival, The Washington Poets Association Burning Word Festival, A 2003 writing residency in Costa Rica, a 2004 residency at Cantagal in France, a 2006 writing residency at Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, and a 2007 La Napoule Art Foundation Residency in France.
Her staged reading from her collection The Immigrant's Table is an acclaimed, original spoken duet that dramatically and poetically tells a story of immigration, cultural adjustment and weaving Old and New Worlds together into a rich fabric of memoir. It has been produced at The University of Washington, Seattle's ArtsWest Theater and Market Theater, The Whidbey Island Performing Arts Center, as well as many other theaters, conferences, and literary venues nationwide.
Port Townsend, Washington and presents her work at corporate events, theaters, writing conferences & festivals, literary venues, colleges and universities, book clubs, and private events.