Look and Listen

Biography

The oldest of ten children, she grew up in the small Appalachian village of Waverly, Ohio (named for Sir Walter Scott's WAVERLY NOVELS.) She was constantly writing plays for all of her siblings to perform. Her first rejection slip (from St. Anthony’s Messenger) arrived when she was five years old. She had talked her grandfather into typing and mailing her story, Pray for the Wanderer. Her grandfather told her a rejection slip proved she was a writer. She had written something and sent it out. That was all she had to do to be a writer. Twenty-five years later, she sold a revised version of that original short story to Catholic Digest. At Ohio University where she majored in Creative Writing and Romance Languages, she was editor of Sphere, the literary magazine.. When she graduated, she won a scholarship to the Sorbonne in Paris. Her auto-biographical novel, UNE ANNEE A PARIS won first place from the Alliance Francaise. After France, she went to the Caribbean where she met and married Lennox Raphael, a Trinidadian writer. They traveled together through four continents.. Their son Raphael was born in New York City. Maryanne taught at Ohio University, the New School for Social Research in New York City, and at the University of Hawaii. She was an editor at Prentice Hall and Woman’s Day Magazine. Her first book RUNAWAYS, AMERICA'S LOST YOUTH (co-author Jenifer Wolf) (Preface Anais Nin) was recently republished by the Authors Guild BACKINPRINT program. After she worked as a Co-Worker of Mother Teresa’s for many years, her book MOTHER TERESA, CALLED TO LOVE was published. Soon afterwards she published THE MAN WHO LOVED FUNERALS, ALEXANDRIA (co-author Patricia Walden), ALONG CAME A SPIDER, A PERSONAL LOOK AT MADNESS and ANAIS NIN, THE VOYAGE WITHIN. Several of her books have won awards from the San Diego Book Awards Association. GARDEN OF HOPE, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MARRIAGE won first place as an unpublished memoir. Maryanne and Lennox wrote GARDEN OF HOPE together. What Mother Teresa Taught Me will be published by St. Anthony’s Messenger Press, the company that gave her that first rejection slip.

Inspiration

When I was a little girl my grandfather read me stories from magazines and before I knew how to write I madeup stories and he typed them and sent them out. Our house was filled with books and 10 children. I loved the Books of Knowledge, an encyclopedia for children. My grandfather was a friend of Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain and we had all the first editions of his books.