About Marilyn
Awards and Honors
As for Life, Honorable Mention, Lena Shull Book Contest, North Carolina Poetry Society, 2020
Oranges and Snow, Semi-Finalist, Malaprop’s Poem-in-A-Pocket Contest, 2013
Participant, North Carolina Poetry Society’s Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, 2012
Meet Marilyn
Writer & Musician
Marilyn published her first poem in 1980. In the ensuing forty years, her poems, essays, and articles have appeared in a number of journals, magazines and anthologies. Her most recent poems have appeared in Kakalak, Kaleidoscope, The Healing Muse, Earth’s Daughters, Speckled Trout Review, Wordgathering, Breath & Shadow, Redheaded Stepchild, Front Porch Review, Red Clay Review, and others.
Marilyn’s most recent collection, Long Field Hollow, a chapbook of poetry, is a story of locating and living in a small mountain cove. These 29 pages offer an intimate glimpse into Marilyn’s environment and daily life.
Her previous full-length poetry collection, As for Life: A memoir exploring the isolation & loss of chronic illness, was published in 2022 received an Honorable Mention from North Carolina Poetry Society’s Lena Shull Book Contest. This volume offers a candid voice depicting living with chronic illness.
Marilyn lives with a life-limiting primary immune deficiency. She has chronic infections and several autoimmune diseases linked to a rare genetic variant.
Although Marilyn trained as a musician, her declining health propelled her to use her design skills to research and build a healthy house.
Throughout her life, writing has been her creative center. Marilyn’s work stands out because of her rich reliance on her musicianship and sign language to summon the words, and establish the form and structure of her work.
Feel the Music
Marilyn grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., spending her early years immersed in a wide variety of cultural experiences. She attended Gettysburg College on a music performance scholarship, where she was featured as a solo flutist, and graduated magna cum laude from Michigan State University with a 6-year degree in Music Education and Music Therapy.
After graduation, she enjoyed a rich career as a solo flutist, having studied from some of the world’s greatest flutists. She taught private lessons and worked as an Advanced Professional certified music teacher in public and private schools, ranging from pre-school and elementary, through college level. She finished her post-graduate work in music in Baltimore, Maryland.
Feel the Music
Marilyn grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., spending her early years immersed in a wide variety of cultural experiences. She attended Gettysburg College on a music performance scholarship, where she was featured as a solo flutist, and graduated magna cum laude from Michigan State University with a 6-year degree in Music Education and Music Therapy.
After graduation, she enjoyed a rich career as a solo flutist, having studied from some of the world’s greatest flutists. She taught private lessons and worked as an Advanced Professional certified music teacher in public and private schools, ranging from pre-school and elementary, through college level. She finished her post-graduate work in music in Baltimore, Maryland.
Built to Last
Marilyn also loved to design, research building materials, and fabricate. In 1995, she and her wife purchased 50 acres of pristine undeveloped land in a rural cove within the boundaries of the Pisgah National Forest where she designed and general contracted a state-of-the-art healthy house, guest cottage, utilities, sheds, and outbuildings. The house and guest cottage are built of steel, concrete, and glass, are handicap accessible, and devoid of formaldehyde, plastics, soil treatments, as well as other noxious chemicals.
Although she is unable to participate in many of her previous pursuits, she continues to manage the upkeep of her property, where she enjoys ongoing projects and repairs.
She sews, quilts, and plays the piano. She is a member of the Author’s Guild and the North Carolina Poetry Society. She and her wife enjoy their quiet cove, three daughters, and eight grandchildren.