Mago Academy invites poets who will guide the Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality Movement, which began about ten years ago in the form of She Rises trilogy and their sequels. “Nine Poets Speak” is a spinoff of the first and inaugural salon presented by the nine poets at the April She Rises Salon under the theme of “Poets Lead the Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality Movement” held on April 12, 2025. We co-planners, Mary Saracino and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, propose the tri-annual salons beginning July (see below for the schedule). The nine poets from the April Salon, together with new poets, will present and take turns to serve as Responding Poets. Details are as follows:

(She Rises Salon) Nine Poets Speak

When: July 12 (Sat) Noon – 1:30 PM PT (90 min)

Theme: Live in Connections with ALL in WE

Presenting Poets: 3 (each presents for 10 min)

Responding Poets: 6 (each responds for 6 min)

Presenting Poets will be given about 10 min for each person, whereas Responding Poets will be given about 6 min for each person. You may propose for both roles with the indication of priority (i.e. 1. Reading and 2. Responding) in your proposal.

For Presenting Poets: You will speak and read your 2-3 poems. If you are interested in presenting your poems, please submit your proposal as follows:

1. Title that represents your poems.

2. Summary (up to 150 words).
3. Your short bio (up to 100 words).

4. Would you be interested in serving as a Responding Poet, if your proposal is not selected as a Presenting Poet?

5. Would you like co-planners to consider your current proposal for the Nov Salon if yours is  not selected for the July Salon? 

For Responding Poets: You will listen to the 3 presenting poets and respond to them by citing your own poems to make connections, as you wish. If you are interested in responding to the poems to be read, please submit your short bio (up to 100 words).

Email your submission to Mary Saracino (marysar1004@msn.com) and/or Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (magoacademy@gmail.com).

Deadline: May 15 or until it fills.

Tri-Annual Schedule of the Nine Poets Speak Salons:

Additional Projects: Selected poets are invited to submit the presented poems and other poems to the blog series of “Nine Poets Speaks” to be published every Thursdays in Return to Mago (RTM) E-Magazine. Upon selecting the poets for each salon, we co-planners will ask you to submit your poems to be read (for presenting poets) or used in your responses (for responding poets) for the publication of your RTM poems. RTM requires a copyright permitted image that goes with each of your poems. Multiple poem submissions are recommended. Email to Mary Saracino (marysar1004@msn.com). Also, your poems may be included in the poetry anthology, “Nine Mago Poets Speak,” to be published by Mago Books in a timely manner. Co-editors of the poetry anthology will choose your poems submitted to RTM.

Why Nine Poets? The number nine represents the Ninefold Cosmic Music, the creative force of the Matriverse (Maternally perceived universe). It refers to a ceaseless interplay of sonically charged nine numbers (from 1 to 9), wherein the ninth mother embraces the eight daughter numbers. See Dr. Hwang’s essay on the Ninefold Cosmic Music here (link).

Meet the returning nine poets who presented at the April She Rises Salon here.

Meet Co-Planners:

Mary Saracino: Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet, and memoir writer who lives in New Mexico. Her most recent novel is Heretics: A Love Story (Pearlsong Press 2014). Her novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. She is also the author of the novels, No Matter What and Finding Grace, and the memoir Voices of the Soft-bellied Warrior. She co-edited (with Mary Beth Moser) She Is Everywhere! Volume 3: An anthology of writings in womanist/feminist spirituality (iUniverse 2012), which earned the 2013 Enheduanna Award for Excellence in Women-Centered Literature from Sofia University. Her poetry and shorter fiction and creative nonfiction pieces have been published in a variety of literary and cultural journals and anthologies, both online and in print. For more information about Mary, visit www.marysaracino.com and http://www.pearlsong.com/mary_saracino.htm

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang is a researcher, author, and advocate of Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of the Creatrix) and has recently established the MA/PhD. program in Creatrix Studies. Having achieved an MA and Ph.D. in Religion with emphasis on Feminist Studies (Claremont Graduate University), Hwang studied an M.A. program at UCLA. Having founded The Mago Work, Hwang has recently launched the S/HE Conference and the S/HE Forum in 2024. She authored, co-edited, and published by Mago Books Reader: Toward Magoist Cetaceanism (2023), The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia (2015), Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar annually since 2018, and the Budoji Workbook series since 2020, Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (2018), Celebrating Intercosmic Kinship of the Goddess (2023), the She Rises trilogy series (2015, 2016, and 2019), and Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (2017).