Mary Johnson is the author of An Unquenchable Thirst, named one of 2011’s best nonfiction books by Kirkus Review and awarded the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Work of Nonfiction.

 

After spending twenty years as a nun with the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College and helped found A Room of Her Own Foundation.

 

Mary now considers herself a secular Humanist and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, O the Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, Bloomberg View, Religion News Services, and National Public Radio.

 

Mary's work has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Salon.com, Poets & Writers, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, and The Rosie Show, among others. A Humanist Celebrant, Mary creates unique ceremonies for weddings, funerals, and other rites of passage, and has twice been voted New Hampshire’s top wedding officiant.

 

She blogs at Medium and can be found at www.maryjohnson.co. Mary LOVES the Hobart Festival of Women Writers. She’s currently writing about the brain, the mysteries of consciousness, and the illusion of the self — so understand that while everything in this bio is true, it’s an illusion to think all this belongs to Mary.

 

This is Mary’s fifth Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Writing Workshop, “WRITING A GREAT SEX SCENE”.