Louisville poet and author Mary O’Dell loves to write. “There’s that itch,” she says. “If I go more than a couple of days without writing, I get really cranky.” O’Dell has been scratching that itch for decades.
O’Dell’s storytelling roots lie deep in Kentucky and West Virginia. She lived in Beckley, W.Va., until she was 15, when her family moved to Jenkins, Ky. She went on to Transylvania College in Lexington to earn her master’s degree. In 1987, O’Dell moved to Louisville, and shortly thereafter started Green River Writers (www.greenriverwriters.org) with her late husband, poet Jim O’Dell. “Writing is such a solitary life; we all need community, support and critique,” she says of the group, over which she continues to preside.
O’Dell has published four collections of poetry: “Poems for the Man Who Weighs Light,” “Living in the Body,” “The Dangerous Man” and “What I Can Count On.” Her passion for poetry started with a workshop led by Kentucky poet Lee Pennington. She believes poetry can use concrete images to draw the reader into emotion and truth. “Talk about the heft of the grapefruit, it’s bitter edge, and let that tell the world how grief may be affecting you.”
Poetry can be narrative or lyric, O’Dell explains. “Narrative has a time line: first this happened, then that happened,” she says. “Lyric poetry captures a moment in time, a place, an image.”
The writer has won recognition for her work, including first prize in the Louisville-based Women Who Write 2010 contest, as well as prizes from Kentucky Poetry Society, Writer’s Digest, and contests in other states.
“You grow as a poet by reading good poets,” she says. “But the core of this is to just get down to it and write, whether you think it’s coming out right or not. Just keep at it. And have the courage to get critiqued by honest, intelligent, yet kind, fellow poets.”
O’Dell finished her first novel more than 35 years ago. “It’s my ‘dresser drawer’ novel and will never see the light of day,” she says. “I started it because I was full of stories.” Since then, the stories have continued to flow. She has published two novels, “The Sweet Letting Go” and “Banger’s People,” and is currently working on another novel.
Her novels typically take place in small-town Kentucky or West Virginia. The protagonist in “The Sweet Letting Go” returns to his hometown after a 30-year absence, and rediscovers the love of his life, only to be faced with the prospect of losing her forever. O’Dell’s most recent novel, “Banger’s People,” explores a mature love relationship, complicated by misbehaving adult offspring, a mugging, and the rude but good-hearted mutt from the book’s title.
O’Dell taught school for many years and continues to teach and mentor writers through Jefferson County Public Schools as well as the lifelong learning classes at Elizabethtown Community College. Her advice to aspiring writers? “Write. A lot. A great big lot. Listen to other writers whose work you admire, and be willing to revise. A lot. A great big lot.”
O’Dell is always eager to meet other writers and poets. She can be reached at (502) 552-9578 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
. Readers can purchase O’Dell’s poetry collections through her, and her novels through Turquoise Morning Press (www.turquoisemorningpress.com) or Amazon.com.
Susan E. Lindsey can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .