Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Women's Studies. In these wonderfully wise writings, Mary Lou Sanelli once again relies on her literary voice and candid sense of humor to explore all the realities true to anyone who has thought of making writing a part of her or his life. In a conversational style that entirely reflects her nature, she relates the comedy and the heartbreak of the writing life: how little it has to do with literary circles and clout and how much it has to do with limitless uncertainty, publishing anxiety, finding a way to make the process of writing, of life, one's joy, rather than relying on any outcome and the importance of viewing each let- down along the way as a triumph. Most compelling is how these writings, chronologically collected, grow and twine on the page right in front of the reader, allowing us to relish each piece like a long conversation with a trusted friend.

A Woman Writing

Literature & Fiction

Sanelli, Mary Lou

Essays & Correspondence

Aequitas Books

"Still, in a way, nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small, we haven't time, like to have a friend takes time."  Georgia O'Keeffe said it and she took time to look closely at things, seeing and painting close-ups like no one else. Mary Lou Sanelli writes like O'Keeffe paintedclose to the heart of things, close at hand.  In this collection of poetry Sanelli writes about friendships, about journeys, and about moving on.

Close at Hand: Poetry of the American West: Northwest Chapters

Poetry

High Plains Press

We all need a safe place to shine when we are young, if not in our parent's eyes, at least in our own. Lucy Maglietta, growing up in the town of tiny Yucca Springs on the vast Mojave Desert, longs for a place that--unlike her home life--feels safe and calm, and she finds it at the Star Struck Dance Studio. When the aging ballet mistress passes the teaching baton to Lucy, she accepts, along with her friend Richard Myers, tap-extraordinaire, who helps run the daily operations of the studio. Together they are of great strength and even greater naïveté, a combination often true in the dance world. For Lucy and Richard, the Star Struck becomes the center of their lives.
 Tensions rise after their only African American student and Richard are brutally attacked, and Lucy and Richard soon discover just how much prejudice exists in a seemingly innocent landscape. What becomes crystal clear for both friends is that the only way to beat back fear, for a dancer, is by dancing. This is a story that explores the wide range of human emotion from behind the intimate curtain of a dance studio. With humor, compassion, a sprinkling of irreverence, and a sharp eye on contemporary life, Sanelli explores, through Lucy, what it means to be a daughter, a teacher, and a friend at a moment when she is forced to approach life as a lesson in forgiveness in an attempt to understand why haters hate.

The Star Struck Dance Studio of Yucca Springs

Literary

Chatwin Books

A fine-tuned, beautiful book that looks with a sharp eye and a generous spirit at one's sense of place as it was in the five years leading up to 2021. And as it is. Now. So much more than a collection of essays, this is a writer's soul laid bare. Filled with universal experience, every page reveals Sanelli's profound understanding of the strength and resilience of the human spirit. In Every Little Thing: Small Breakthroughs, Big Mistakes, Endless Lessons, Sanelli proves that a narrative essay can be wise and vulnerable and nail what matters most in our lives, all in the same breath. No one tells-truth with more heart, humor, and accountability. With a voice that speaks of life as it is everyday lived-with joy, calm, worry, and alarm-Sanelli manages to write lyrically in warm, accessible language. One can learn so much from a writer who, wherever she goes she takes her readers along with her, her experiences becoming theirs, as well. These writings will make you miss the Northwest even if you've never been there. Gliding on sentences smooth as stone with the brightness of the author's enthusiasm, this book will delight, challenge, reassure, and steer any reader toward a higher capacity to expand life's smallest moments into our grandest triumphs.

Every Little Thing: Small Breakthroughs, Big Mistakes, Endless Lessons

Among Friends

Parenting & Relationships

Poetry. "Sensuous, sensual, brave and insistent, Sanelli's work shows the enclosures we tend provide no refuge. Cruelty, violation, aging or sudden death aren't invaders; they've been under our feet all along: 'the world, suddenly, too over-exposed/ to see, too piercing to hear.' This gardener is...unprotected by pose. Her poems lead us out of self-consciousness into the risk of presence and truth..." - Jody Aliesan. "I came away from her poems resolved to look more intimately at life and with a fervent desire to write down my own observations. That alone is the highest compliment I can pay this excellent poet" - Laurie Wagner Buyer.

Women in the Garden

Pleasure Boat Studio

Cooking. Poetry. "In this collection, Mary Lou Sanelli brings poems out of the ivory tower, straight to the family dinner table. No fast-food substitutes here, as the poet recreates a culture in which food preparation is a cherished ritual. Sanelli's clear-eyed, yet loving, awareness of family members' foibles, including her own, provides the reader with a menu that nourishes both body and spirit, a gourmet treat for the imagination" -- Madeline Defrees. THE IMMIGRANT'S TABLE is a beautiful collection of poems and recipes, an odd pairing until you read how Mary Lou Sanelli has managed it. In the hands of this adept poet, these seemingly disparate elements flow together like pasta sauce and garlic, like Chianti and cheese. Sanelli introduces her reader to her family in the most Italian of settings: around a table. And in introducing her family, she also reveals those long-held family recipes for a great meal as well as those for a strong and lively family.

The Immigrant's table

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Regional & International

Poetry. In this sixth collection, the poet shows just what place means to her: the people, the landscape, the gardens, the cafes, and the water. Her journeys elsewhere only intensify her love of the Northwest. You'll come away from this book with a deep appreciation of this corner of America and, quite likely, with a longing to know your home town and your own neighbors a little better than you do now.

Craving Water

Children's Books

Cultural Writing. Essays. Mary Lou Sanelli's FALLING AWAKE: AN AMERICAN WOMAN GETS A GRIP ON THE WHOLE CHANGING WORLD--ONE ESSAY AT A TIME brings a sharp eye and sophisticated wit not only to the sometimes disheartening, sometimes encouraging aspects of our current politics and culture, but also to issues specific to her home city of Seattle. "Mary Lou Sanelli...offer(s) a sensitive, personal look at life's tug-of-wars like those between age and time, male and female, war and peace, place and belonging"--Knute Berger.

Falling Awake: An American Woman Gets a Grip on the Whole Changing World, One Essay at a Time

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. An intelligent voice. An illuminating book. Mary Lou Sanelli is unsparing as she explores the subject of friendship in women's lives. This is a book of self-discovery...dauntless, smart, funny, beautifully written. She examines, deeply and sincerely, what friendship means, and what it costs. She pulls no punches. Through contemplation and through personal anecdotes, both her own and others, Sanelli crawls through this morass of conflicts and emerges with a strong sense of self and a much clearer idea of closeness.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sanelli, Mary Lou. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sanelli, Mary Lou

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sanelli, Mary Lou. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Woman Writing

Close at Hand: Poetry of the American West: Northwest Chapters

The Star Struck Dance Studio of Yucca Springs

Every Little Thing: Small Breakthroughs, Big Mistakes, Endless Lessons

Among Friends

Women in the Garden

The Immigrant's table

Craving Water

Falling Awake: An American Woman Gets a Grip on the Whole Changing World, One Essay at a Time

Among Friends