speaking

Speaking Experience

Mary-Kate Mackey has appeared at venues across the country. She has presented garden talks, in person and online, from Boston to Seattle to San Diego. Her writing presentations and workshops have been well received by such professional organizations as Garden Communicators International and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

“Mary-Kate Mackey is so knowledgeable and a great presenter. I always leave with great takeaways from any of her talks.”
— Katie Elzer-Peters, author, CEO Garden of Words, LLC

Garden Presentations Sampler—

Mary-Kate covers a wide range of topics on how to garden with nature, not against her. The goal is to help everyone get more joy from their outdoor life by addressing the problems that hinder the experience. These talks can take gardening practices to the next level in terms of understanding and appreciating the natural world.

  • Been There, Killed That—best plants for the West Coast

  • The Best and Brightest—A review of new plants

  • Button-Down Plants—easy-care plants that play well with others

  • Every Garden Tells a Story—behind the scenes with three published gardens

  • Five for Health—The easy elements of a healthy garden

  • A Midsummer Garden Nightmare—mistakes I made so you don’t have to

  • Small but Mighty Groundcovers—the missing link

  • Water: efficient strategies to get the most from the least

“Mary-Kate’s teaching style is both incredibly efficient and spontaneous. She’s a natural.”
— Kristin Green, Interpretive Horticulturist

Writing Presentations

Mary-Kate offers quick and efficient fixes for the challenges of written communication. Whether her presentations are an hour long or a full three days of workshops, all include hands-on short exercises for participants. These problem-solving practicalities are based on her book, Write Better Right Now (Red Wheel/Weiser Press), which came from her fourteen years of teaching writing at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.

  • Book Proposals that Get Noticed

  • Finding Focus—How to drill down to discover your message

  • Hero’s Journey—The fiction foundation that saves nonfiction

  • Hook, Nut, & All That

  • How to Copy for Fun and Profit—Deconstruct any style

  • Rubrics to Save Your Self-editing

  • Twelve Transitions—Will work for change

  • Story Arc—One construct rules them all

  • When Deadlines Loom—Fast fixes get your writing out the door