Writer

Her writing has appeared in Pangyrus, Every Day Fiction, Gemini, Hippocampus, Funny Pearls, IO Literary Journal, and Evening Street Review. 

Marie earned Honorable Mention for “Slaughtering Goats” in Gemini’s Story contest and Honorable Mention for “Begin Again” in Lorian Hemingway’s Short Story Contest. 

She believes writing like much of life is a process. 

Paper to pen is Marie’s central communication and she encourages others to find their path. “The writing process is binary. Pen to paper opens one to the self. At times writing may be less about the actual words and more about connecting with the self.”

 Marie holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and an MA in English Composition from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is an active member of the Grub Street Writing Community in Boston.

Spirit

Whether one runs a marathon or finds bliss on their yoga mat, recites the rosary or chants a mantra, the vital life animates within us. In these times of strife, one may lose touch with their spirit. It’s important to remember creation is a natural part of our human existence.

“The time has come, your time to live, to celebrate, to see the goodness that you are… Let no one, No thing or ideal or ideas obstruct you,” Swami Kripalu, Bapuji.

Pilgrim

At the turn of this century Marie read Shirley MacLaine’s The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit and a seed germinated. Marie knew she’d walk el Camino de Santiago, the ancient five-hundred-mile path across northern Spain, only there were children to raise and elders who required care. 

For a decade Marie held on to her dream, like a whisper from another world, she kept listening. In the meantime, she found mountains to climb, trails to run, and realized that she’d been walking and climbing all her life and encouraging others to join her. 

In 2010, Marie set out to walk el Camino de Santiago. She has since made two more pilgrimages in Spain.

After the first Camino, Marie longed to return to Spain. Soon after her return she began an MFA program.

After the second Camino, time in nature became medicine.

“Perhaps I’d always been like this and I was finally tuning into what my spirit required. There had always been so many others demanding my attention.”

After the third Camino she surrendered her decades long gym membership. Walking and hiking became the essential practice far exceeding as an exercise requirement and serving more as a meditative practice carried out in all kinds of weather.

“Walking in nature heals. When I spend time with trees I am rejuvenated.” 

Teacher

Marie has taught at Suffolk University and the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has earned her stripes teaching public school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She has developed curriculum at the high school and college level. 

Marie developed a Writing Retreat for teachers held annually for nine years in Nantucket, she also led writing groups sponsored by the Boston Writing Project.

Marie’s continued work with teenagers recognizes the challenge of growing now more than any time in human history. 

“Writing for success is part of teaching high school students and writing to be human is a result of how I teach.”  

“It is never too late to be what you might have been,” George Eliot.

“It’s funny to think of being a grown up. What does that really mean? I’d never want to be done growing. Each day we change and inevitable reality is as natural as the shifting tide.”