Mary Glickman

Mary Glickman is an author, a former free-lance copywriter, public relations professional, and fundraiser who has worked with many Jewish charities and organizations. Born on the south shore of Boston, Mary was raised in a strict Irish-Polish Catholic family. From an early age, she was fascinated by faith. Though she attended Catholic school and as a child wanted to become a nun, her attention eventually turned to the Old Testament and she began what would become a lifelong relationship with Jewish culture. Joseph Campbell wrote that religion is the poetry that speaks to a mans soul, Mary has said, and Judaism was my souls symphony.

In her twenties, Mary traveled in Europe and explored her passion for writing, composing short stories and poetry. Returning to the United States, she met her future husband, Stephen, a lawyer, and with his encouragement began to consider writing as a career. She enrolled in the Masters in Creative Writing program at Boston University, under the poet George Starbuck, who encouraged her to focus on fiction writing. While taking an MFA seminar with the late Ivan Gold, Mary completed her first novel, Drones, which received a finalist award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities but was never published. Five more unpublished novels followed.

Mary also began a career as a freelance writer working with nonprofit organizations on projects such as fund-raising campaigns for the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center and United Jewish Appeal. She and Stephen married in 1978. Mary made a full conversion to Judaism and later worked as treasurer/secretary for her synagogue.

Her love for all things Southern arose from a sabbatical year. In 1987, Mary and Stephen first traveled to the south of Spain, living in an Andalusian fishing village called La Cala. After seven months abroad and, hoping to extend their time away, they sought a warmand more affordablelocale. The romance of Charleston, South Carolina, its Spanish moss, antebellum architecture, and rich cultural life beckoned.

Settling into a rented house on Seabrook Island, Mary fell in love with the people, language, and rural beauty of her new home. Following a lifelong desire to ride horses, she took a position mucking stalls at the local equestrian center and embraced riding, finding her match in an Appaloosa named King of Harts. After a year, the sabbatical ended and the couple returned to life in Boston, but the passion for Southern culture remained with them. They were able to return permanently to Seabrook Island in 2008, where they currently reside with their cat and an elderly King of Harts.

Since moving to South Carolina, Marys life long dream of publishing a novel has been realized.  Her first novel, Home in the Morning, is in development for film by Jim Kohlberg, director of The Music Never Stopped (Sundance 2011). Her second novel, One More River, was a Finalist for the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in Fiction. Her third novel, Marching to Zion, was launched in November, 2013.