Mary C. Lewis

Mary unearths characters’ footsteps and voices to bring collective fulfillment to as many ancestors and contemporaries as her daily 4 a.m. rising allows. eMerge has published her short fiction, and her essays appeared in Under Her Skin and Sleeping with One Eye Open. Her début novel, Strangers and Pilgrims, will extend to a sequel she’s drafting.

Mary began her career as editorial assistant and then managing editor of Ebony Jr! (Johnson Publishing), entering self-employment in 1980. Her most recent role was as a senior editor, analyzing commercial real estate proposals and reports. Other work has focused on sharing her knowledge of writing and editing among various audiences including Columbia College Chicago, on authors’ journals and the creative writing process; River Oak Arts, the basics of fiction writing; and the Dumas Elementary School’s after- school programs on journaling and creative writing, for grades 4–8.

Of all the residencies she has attended, Hedgebrook Writers in Residence, Ragdale, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and others, Kimbilio resounds with a unique signature that simultaneously bonds and frees authors of the African diaspora. With this seeming contradiction in mind, Mary devotes her passion as a writer of fiction.