Marian Szczepanski

Teaches at WriteSpace Houston

The granddaughter of immigrant coal miners, Marian Szczepanski used her family background as inspiration for Playing St. Barbara (High Hill Press, 2013), praised by Huffington Post as “a stunning debut novel that shimmers with unforgettable characters while casting necessary light on a dark chapter in American history.” Her short fiction has garnered the DeMaine Award for an Emerging Writer from Clackamas Literary Review. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, and the Houston Press Club. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and a BA in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Named to the Houston Press roster of “100 Houston Creatives” for 2014, Marian teaches creative writing workshops at Writespace and beyond.