An award-winning writer and freelance editor living in the Bay Area, Mary Rakow, Ph.D. works with clients who are both local and global. She is rigorous and encouraging, insightful and kind.
Graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UC Riverside, Rakow’s debut novel, The Memory Room, received outstanding reviews and was shortlisted for the Stanford University International Saroyan Prize in Literature, a PEN USA/West Finalist in Fiction and was listed among the Best Books of the West by The Los Angeles Times. The Memory Room, drew the attention of The Lannan Foundation which awarded her a $75,00.00 Literary Fellowship and two writing residencies in Marfa, TX.
A theologian with graduate degrees from Harvard Divinity School and Boston College, inducted into the Jesuit Honor Society Alpha Sigma Nu for her doctoral work, Mary writes with deep feeling and a questioning faith. Her second novel, This Is Why I Came earned outstanding reviews in The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Commonweal, Christian Century, O Magazine and Ploughshares. It appeared on reading lists for courses at both Princeton and Yale.
Inspired by the visual arts she was awarded two writing residencies at Whale & Star, in the studio of visual artist Enrique Martínez Celaya and was commissioned by the artist and Ediciones Poligrapha to write the first comprehensive treatment of the artist’s working method, Martínez Celaya, Working Methods.
She has served as a writing teacher in UCLA Extension Writing Program, a mentor in PEN CENTER USA WEST’s Emerging Writing Program and presents at San Francisco Writers’ Conference. She blogs on the writing process when moved to do so. Here’s a sample, The Gift of Courage.
To be on that blog mailing list contact maryrakow1@gmail.
Mary is a beloved editor and writing coach. She is constantly on the look-out for new writers, both those just starting out and those with publications and accolades.