Mary
Ann Ramey lives in Erie, Pennsylvania. After a career that included
periods as a reference librarian and a labor lawyer, in 1996, she
joined L’Arche, an international federation of intentional
communities where people with intellectual disabilities live in
mutual friendship and respect with others who help them create homes.
She retired from an active role in L’Arche in 2017 after living in
the L’Arche communities in Mobile, Alabama, Portland, Oregon, and
Erie.
She
has been writing poetry and stories, intermittently, for years and is
delighted to be able now to concentrate on writing.
Get to know Mary Ann...
Birthdate? June
7, 1947
When did you start writing?
In childhood—I remember impressing my cousins with a story written
in a spiral-bound steno notebook when I was nine. (I don’t remember
what it was about, but I remember they were mostly impressed that it
was twelve pages long.)
When and what and where did you
first get published?
A poem entitled “The Artifact” in the October 1974 issue of
Cimarron Review. (My first publication of a fantasy story is “The
Sleepless One” in New Myths.)
Why do you write?
Writing is my way of making art, and I believe that making art is a
basic and important human impulse, whether it’s writing, drawing or
painting, working with stone or clay, making music, dancing, acting,
making films, or one of the often unrecognized art forms like
cooking, creating a healthy lovely home, or helping create good and
beautiful friendships and communities. Our culture tells us that
creating art is for specialists, but I think that takes us down an
unfortunate path.
Why do you write Science Fiction
and/or Fantasy?
There’s so much more that needs to be said than the conventions of
realism allow.
Who is your favorite author? Your
favorite story?
How can anyone have just one, or, for that matter, just a dozen?
