Mary earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts  and writes in multiple genres: poetry for children and adults, and picture books. Mary’s poetry and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Cape Cod Times, The Cambridge Chronicle, Provincetown Magazine, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, and at SheWired.

Book News!

Like a Mother Bear, Mary’s picture book biography of PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford, will be illustrated by J Yang and published by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster! Coming in 2027.

Poetry for Children:

Mary’s poetry for children has been published in several anthologies and online poetry journals, including Things We Do and What is a Hope? from Pomelo Books; Tyger Tyger journal; and Dirigible Balloon. Mary’s poem “Firefighter Face” appears in Amazing Faces, an anthology edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Lee and Low, 2010).

Poetry for Adults:

  • “Ars Poetica, Bronx,” in The New York Times, 25 July 2021.
  • “Red Blouse” in Rise Up Review, summer 2023.
  • “Silent” in the journal Passager, September 2023.
  • “Still” in Radical Teacher, winter 2023.
  • “Call the Doctor” in Medmic journal, September 2023.
  • “Studying Rachel Maddow in Provincetown,” in the anthology Hashtag Queer Vol. 2, 2018.
  • “Not in Kansas: Tribute to Rainbow Flag Creator Gilbert Baker,” Provincetown Magazine, June 2018.
  • “We Know How to Do This,” in anthology If You Can Hear This: Poems in Protest of an American Inauguration. Sibling Rivalry Press, January 2017.

Essays:

Podcast Interview:

I was delighted to be a guest on the Bronx Heroes podcast– episode 3.

Recording the Bronx Heroes podcast, April 2022

Academic Publication:

“Resilience and Literacy: Building Two Strengths at Once.” Impact: The Journal of the NY State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. February 2012.

Awards and Honors

  • Boston Authors Club, Discovery Award honorable mention, 2020.
  • Candlewick Scholarship to Rainbow Writers Retreat, Writing Barn, Austin TX, 2019.
  • Eileen Spinelli Scholarship, Highlights Foundation, 2017.
  • Katherine Paterson Prize, Runner-Up, Hunger Mountain /Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2016.
  • Local Cultural Council Grant for “Connecting Through Kids’ Books: a Prison Writing Project,” 2016.
  • Finalist, Cape Cod Writers Center Writing Contest, Middle-Grade Fiction, 2016.
  • Ruth Landers Glass Scholarship (fiction), New England Society of Children’s Book Writers, 2014.
  • Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, Grant Recipient, Creative Writing at Barnstable County Correctional Facility, 2014.