About Mary Caprio

Mary Caprio

When I was in elementary school, my favorite kind of assignment involved the words “write a story.” But as I grew older, I lost touch with the part of me that so enjoyed inventing those stories. By the time I reached high school, I looked longingly at the creative writing majors and courses in the college catalogs, but knew I wouldn’t be brave enough to follow that path. Instead I studied “practical” things and applied for jobs which promised decent benefits and some long-term growth potential. This is how I acquired a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s degree in business and information systems, both from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The jobs I had during college led me to more jobs after graduating -- four years at Hopkins in computer user support followed by a move to Nashville with my husband, and four years at Middle Tennessee State University doing information systems work in the Admissions Office.

Finally, I was rescued -- by the birth of my first child. I knew I didn’t want to work full-time anymore so I quit my job and took courses in layout and publication design so I would be ready to do some freelance work when my daughter got bigger. But despite the joys of family life and the flexibility of freelancing, I still felt I was missing something -- and every time I was willing to look closely at what that might be, I felt it had something to do with writing.

There was only one problem... I had no idea how to get started. I had ideas, and I could even make time to write. I just couldn’t do it.

I went to classes, and I went to workshops, and I read lots of writing books. I could write while I was in a class, but as soon as it was done, reverted back to the frozen-not-writing stage. I began to get frustrated because so many of the workshops focused on publishing -- write this way if you want an editor to buy your book -- and not on the craft of writing. Even before getting to the craft part, I felt like I needed help getting past the obstacles I had placed in front of my own creativity.

It had to be perfect, for one thing.

No pressure there, right?

Why didn’t the words I wrote down do justice to the stories I was building in my head? I would get brave enough to start writing, but then give up in a short time because it all sounded so dreadfully awkward when it reached the page. So I gave up on books that offered help with structuring a short story or plotting a novel, and focused on the basics -- getting started, and getting past the fear that prevented me from getting started.

I read the book Poetic Medicine by John Fox in which he advocates the use of “poem-making” as a way to get to know yourself better and to figure out the things that may be getting in the way of your creativity. But still for me it wasn’t going to be easy -- it was months after I read the book that I attempted my first poem, and probably another year after that before I started to write poetry as if it were a regular part of my life, using it as a container for the things I cared about, worried about, wondered about, or just wanted to remember.

And the writing started to feel good, to get easier and easier. In fact, I soon reached a point where I felt that writing a poem now and then was in fact essential to keeping my emotional world in working order.

Along the way I spent quite a bit of time searching for workshops that fit into my new view of writing -- that it could be not just fun but essential -- only to be disappointed that there were few such workshops within a short distance of my home in Franklin. Finally, It occurred to me that this might be the calling I had been looking for, and so my next search was for training and mentoring so that I could begin teaching the kind of workshops I had in mind. I found the training under the auspices of the National Association for Poetry Therapy and have spent the past four years working on coursework combiining independent study, supervision, facilitation and peer group experiences, with a combination of material from counseling psychology, literature, and the expressive arts therapies. I enjoy very much what I’m doing these days at Pen, Paper and Magic, and look forward to continuing on this path of learning and growth.

Mary Caprio
January 1, 2006