With her second collection of poetry, Conway resident Libby Maxey is documenting various moments of belonging and isolation while reflecting on time spent during the COVID-19 pandemic that may have been forgotten if not turned into poetry.

“I think the poetry in this collection is more of seeking belonging in a large-scale way,” Maxey said. “It’s not necessarily one-on-one connection or connection with a group in a present place and time but, how do I find a sense of linkage in this place, this time, even if I can’t leave the house.”

Aside from producing this poetry collection, called “Indwelling,” Maxey is the mother of two sons who greatly influence her writing. The Aberdeen, Washington native is also a senior editor and poetry editor for the online literary journal “Literary Mama,” where she has worked since 2012. She does personal editing for people developing various writing genres and is also the Amherst College Classics and Environmental Studies Department coordinator, complementing her love for classical literature.

Maxey elaborated on this love for language.

“One of the things I love about writing is discovering language for myself and sharing that,” Maxey explained. “I think, in kind of an abstract way, I’m writing for people who love language.”

Although mothers and lovers of classical literature and poetry will relish in the collection, Maxey said she is not writing for a specific audience. Maxey elaborated by quoting poet Jericho Brown, who said, “You can only write the poems you got,” interpreting this phrase as a way of writing for herself.

“I would hope that the poetry is always honest and it’s sufficiently straightforward, even in its formalized way,” Maxey said. “Even in its stylized way, it presents itself without manipulation, without pushing the reader.

“I think I am often writing about an experience that anyone in my neighborhood could have, anyone in my age group could have, anyone who’s a mother could have,” she said of her poetry and her audience. “That’s kind of an effort to kick the door open.”

Maxey regularly meets with a local, independent writing group that she said helps to keep her true to her writing and provide inspiration. She said she has a special fondness for New England writers and takes inspiration from writers such as Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Emily Dickinson.

Maxey has won the Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest, Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest and the Princemere Poetry Prize. Her first collection of poetry, “Kairos,” which was released in 2019, won the Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition.

Work on “Indwelling” began in 2015 and it was published on March 22, 2024, by Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers that publishes genres like poetry, novels, sermon collections, biographies and more. Maxey said the collection has a “domestic focus,” weaving in different moments of inward reflection on different moments of time.

“It’s got this very small, personal, domestic focus, but it also kind of stretches into various corners of place and time,” she said.

Although it may not be intentional, Maxey emphasized that writing over a stretched period of time is an effective way to represent herself, rather than a hindrance to her goals as a writer.

“I don’t like to kind of overstay when I’m working on a related group,” she explained. “I get bored with my own voice at a certain point and need to shake it up.”

Maxey addressed her prolonged writing style, joking that many poets “are writing the same poem over and over again,” trying to address the same feeling that made them start writing in the first place.

“Part of what we’re doing is taking a stab at the same question, the same topic, over and over again when we feel like we can find a new way in, change that voice or make the voice more collective rather than varying much of ourself,” she noted. “Maybe that’s a new way to talk about the same old thing.”

When considering what advice she’d give to aspiring writers, Maxey said they should “make time to do it even if you can’t make much.”

“If I expect to generate something great every day or even just once a month,” she said, “I would be disappointed with myself all the time.”

For more information about Maxey, visit her website at libbymaxey.com.