When Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing student Mike Maggio's eldest daughter was about two years old, he wrote a poem about her. Six years later, she was the proud hostess of a unique show and tell presentation, during which her father read the poem to her fourth grade class as part of a presentation on poetry.
But his daughter is not the only person that believes this writer has talent. In the past few years, Maggio has garnered the attention of publishers for both his fiction and his poetry. Recent publications include a collection of fiction entitled Sifting Through The Madness (Xlibris), a chapbook, Oranges From Palestine (Mardi Gras Press), and a collection of poetry, Your Secret Is Safe With Me (Black Bear Publications).
Maggio's latest book deMOCKracy, (Plain View Press, June 2007), is a collection of poetry that focuses on what he perceives as Americans’ civil and political unrest with the foreign and domestic policies of the Bush administration.
“There is a lot of anger in the book, a lot of rage at what is going on, Maggio wrote in an emailed statement. I am not so much speaking for myself as I am speaking for our nation. We are a broken country now, a country in pain.
Along with the verbal imagery involved in his poetry, the verses feature visual cues, such as maps and wingdings, as well as photos and creative text types. Even the table of contents was carefully visualized. The obfuscation of text is meant to mirror what the administration has been doing with the information it hides from the public,” he said. In addition, some of the words in the poems are purposefully misspelled. In his current compositions, Maggio is experimenting with including technical language into his poetry, drawing upon experience in his job as an IT professional at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
A native of New York City, Maggio moved to the Washington, D.C. metro area in 1993 from Saudi Arabia, where he met his wife. The couple now resides in Herndon, Virginia with their three children. Previously, Maggio graduated with a BA in English/Creative Writing from Queens College at the City University of New York and a MA in Linguistics from University of Southern California. In 2003, he enrolled in George Mason’s MFA program in creative writing.
The first inklings of deMOCKracy occurred when Maggio answered the open call for submissions from local poet and activist Sarah Browning to create an anthology for the Washington, D.C. chapter of the national organization, Poets Against the War. After his submissions were published as part of the group's work, Maggio became involved in the organization, organizing groups of poets to attend demonstrations. His work during those demonstrations was the inspiration for Maggio to compose deMOCKracy.
Maggio's forthcoming book will incorporate his MFA thesis, which contains the compositions he has been working on during his time in the Mason program.