Deacon Spotlight: Mackenzie Kozak

Mackenzie Kozak (2013, BA in English, Minor in Studio Art)

Writer & Therapist at Inner Word Counseling in Asheville, NC

Tell us about your current job role and employer. What are you currently working on?

I work in private practice as a therapist specializing in grief counseling, and I also have a career as a writer. My first poetry collection, no swaddle, won the Iowa Poetry Prize and was published by the University of Iowa Press this past April. I’m currently working on another collection of poetry that explores/imagines the perspectives of the cave painters of Lascaux.

What key personal and/or career experiences led you to where you are today?

I’ve wanted to be a poet since I was 11 years old, and that desire was lit in me during a year of a lot of grief – I felt there was no way to adequately describe what I was feeling, and then I stumbled upon poetry, and it became a way of attending to the interior that felt the most accurate. It seems fitting to have a career as a grief therapist alongside being a writer, because so much of the work my clients are doing is about naming and sitting in spaces of suffering, which certainly parallels the writing process.

In terms of career trajectory, I went right from my undergrad at Wake into the MFA program at UNC-Greensboro, which was a beautiful couple of years devoted to writing and engaging with a writing community. Post-MFA, I struggled with questions of career and worked a number of administrative jobs that felt misaligned with my values and goals. I had thought about counseling as a career for some time, and eventually went back to get another MA, this time in clinical mental health counseling. I’ve had my own private practice for the past four years and am grateful for the meaning and connection present in what I do and also the freedom of working for myself.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job? How do you navigate that challenge?

As a poet, the most challenging aspect for me is the publishing game and the difficulty in feeling seen or appreciated by the world. If you’re going to be a writer, and you’re going to publish, you’re probably going to experience a lot of rejection. A few months before I heard from Iowa that they were going to publish my book, I was sharing with some writer friends that I had been sending books out to contests for a decade and was wondering if I would ever publish a collection. And even when you have a book in the world, though it is the dreamiest thing that you’ve always wished for, you still don’t know if anyone will buy it or read it or if will take on a life outside of your bookshelf. How to navigate this? You keep going, and you can feel whatever you need to feel, but you keep writing and reading and sending things out. I made a rule at one point that every time I get a rejection, I send out 2-3 more submissions. So the rejection becomes fire beneath me.

As a therapist, the most challenging aspect for me is holding the heaviness and not being overtaken by it. I think good therapists are truly present in the room and are picturing alongside their clients as clients are sharing what they’ve experienced and felt. That means I have a lot of pictures in my head, and many of these pictures are really painful to think about, and they will stay with me, confidentially, for the rest of my life. It’s an honor to be a witness to these stories and to the bravery of the people who share them. And it also hurts, as it should hurt. I navigate this by spending time in the mountains and rivers in and around Asheville where I live, by laughing with my partner, and by watching my dog catch the frisbee. It takes active attention to be present in the joy as well as the suffering.

What advice would you give to Wake Forest graduates about developing their personal life habits after college (finances, health, values, work/life balance)?

Oof, I don’t pretend to have much advice about personal life habits. I like to remember that the idea of “balance” is a slippery one, and balance can look different day to day or week to week. I think my advice would be to practice getting in touch with your mind, your body, your spirit – so that you can check in with these aspects of yourself and know what they need, that you can attend to these parts. I would also say we live in a society that values urgency and accomplishment and quantity, and we need to remember that slowing down and resting and being present are necessary values that allow us the space to live out what matters to us.

We know that relationships are important for any kind of development. How do you build and maintain your network?

I am lucky to have dear writer friends and therapist friends who are incredibly important to me and the work that I’m doing. I think we prop each other up when the submissions or the stories are feeling like too much. I maintain these networks by meeting up regularly with the people in my circles, and I build them by attending readings or trainings in the community. While networking is not a strong suit of mine, I think there’s something to be said for showing up.

Tell us about your mentoring relationships. What impact have these relationships had on your career and life?

I’ve had a number of professors who have mentored me as a writer – Professor David Biespiel and Professor Conor O’Callaghan were the poetry professors at Wake Forest who made me a better writer and human, and Professor David Roderick at UNCG was my thesis advisor who helped me compile and edit my first attempt at a book. My former supervisor, Ali Davis, was very impactful for me as a new therapist. Having these mentors in my life to discuss craft and technique was essential to my careers.

What advice would you give to current Wake Forest students and/or young alumni who are interested in working in your industry?

I think it is simultaneously necessary to remember that there’s so much we are still learning at any point in our career, there’s still so much growing to do all the time, AND we have to keep pushing and engaging with our passions in order to get anywhere. I guess it’s a balance of drive/belief in what you are doing, as well as humility and a desire to learn what you don’t know yet. And it’s okay not to know everything all the time. It’s okay to ask for support or help along the way.

What’s next for your career? What future goals or plans are you pursuing?

I’m currently in the processing of giving readings and promoting my current book, no swaddle, so I have a number of readings this summer/fall and am looking at booking for the spring.

Additionally, I’m working on my next book of poems – I’m in the researching and writing phase, and once I have a draft I’ll start sending individual poems to journals and the whole manuscript to publishers.

Story published in July 2025. For current updates about Mackenzie and her written work as a poet, visit her website.