Mary Rakow

Mary Rakow is an American novelist.

Life

She graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from University of California, Riverside, in 1970, from Harvard University with a master's degree in Theological Studies, and from Boston College with a Ph.D. in Theology, Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society. Her work has appeared in Works & Conversations. She has appeared on Writers on Writing, with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett KUCI-FM.

Rakow is a member of PEN Center USA/West, where she has mentored in the PEN Rosenthal Emerging Voices Program. She is a novelist and freelance editor living in San Francisco.

She is a native Californian living in San Francisco.

Awards

• 2002 10 Best Books in the West, L.A. Times, 2002
• 2003 Lannan Literary Fellowship
• 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist
• 2010 Whale and Star residency in the studio of Enrique Martínez Celaya

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.
• Matthew Biro, Leo A. Harrington, Mary Rakow (2012). Martinez Celaya, Working Methods. Ediciones Poligrafa. ISBN 978-84-343-1316-3.
• Mary Rakow. (15 Dec 2015). This Is Why I Came, a novel. Counterpoint Press. ISBN 978-1-61902-575-2.

Anthology

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

Theology

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

Reviews

The Memory Room

• 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.
• With subtlety, restraint and an extraordinary eye for detail, Rakow has constructed a breathtaking debut.-- starred Publishers Weekly

This Is Why I Came

• Examine it thoroughly: it’s miraculous. (Lawrence Wood, Christian Century May 11, 2016)

• These stories, both Old and New, are awash in dread and terror and beauty. They aren’t lifeless myths; they are mythic stories once again given flesh and blood. (Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine Aug 22, 2016)

• The prose is beautiful: mystical, arresting, surprising. (Courtney Sender, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Summer/Autumn, 2016)