Mary Rakow

Mary Rakow is an American novelist.

Life

She graduated from University of California, Riverside,^[1] in 1970,^[2] from Harvard University with a Masters Degree in Theological Studies, and from Boston College with a Ph.D. in Theology. Her work has appeared in Works & Conversations.^[3] She has appeared on Writers on Writing, with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett KUCI-FM.^[4]

Rakow is a member of PEN Center USA/West, where she has mentored in the PEN Rosenthal Emerging Voices Program.^[5]

She is a native Californian living in San Francisco.

Awards

• 2003 Lannan Literary Fellowship^[6]
• 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist^[7]

Works

• "Poeta: from The Memory Room". In Posse Review (12). 
• Mary Rakow. (28 Feb 2002). The Memory Room. Counterpoint Press. ISBN 978-1-58243-172-7. 

Anthology

• Samantha Dunn (2005). Women on the Edge. Toby Press. ISBN 978-1-59264-125-3. ^[8]

Theology

• "Christ's Descent into Hell: Calvin's Interpretation", Religion in Life, 43, (Summer 1974)^[9]

Reviews

Now this is a book that dives deep into the wreck, a book in which it is always in question whether Barbara, the protagonist, will ever be able to make sense of the moral evil at the heart of her childhood, an evil she repressed for a very long time. The book is formally daring, it is utterly disinterested in the usual cause-and-effect conceits of traditional mainstream narration, opting instead for a collage of Barbara's perception, memory, and evasion of memory, interspersed with fragments of Paul Celan and the Psalms. This is a harrowing, stunning novel.^[10]

References

External links

• Mary Rakow's Website
• "Three Questions for Mary Rakow", The Los Angeles Times, Susan Salter Reynolds, June 30, 2002
• Jane Fitch's Book List
• "This is Why I Came" Mary Rakow's Newest Novel