Marlene Carvell

While writing is an important part of my life, it certainly doesn't define who I am. Author, educator, wife, mother (and mother-in-law), grandmother, hiker, dancer, canoeist, cyclist, skier, and so on. Those roles, and many more, are what make me a rather contented individual.

And my background is not much different from so many others. I grew up in central New York in a rural environment, received my undergraduate degree in English from SUNY Potsdam and began both my public school teaching career and married life in 1969. I returned to graduate school in the 1970s, earning a Master of Fine Arts (Major in Drama; Minor in English Literature) from the University of Texas at Austin.

Missing our families and the change of seasons, my husband and I returned to New York in the late 1970s where we bought a large Victorian home in a small rural community and started a family of our own (ultimately two sons). Shortly thereafter, I continued my professional career at Cazenovia College where I taught until 1986 at which time I returned to public school teaching at a rural high school in central New York State, from which I retired in 2007. It was while teaching at this school that the love I had for writing was launched into a career when two of those roles mentioned above collided as son number two found himself on a one-person campaign to change his school's mascot. The result? Who Will Tell My Brother? and the beginning of my own incredible journey as an author.