Having left decades of full-time college teaching to spend more waking hours writing, Marilyn participates in two programs through the Oblate School of Theology and Western Theological Seminary designed to help adults claim new space for writing and reflection in their personal and professional lives. She also speaks for university, church, and community groups, leads retreats, offers short courses and writing workshops and works as a writing coach.

Her books include several volumes of poetry, several on language (Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies; Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict; Word by Word; When Poets Pray; What’s in a Phrase?), several on illness and dying (A Faithful Farewell, Dear Doctor) and one on The Scarlet Letter as an American parable (Reading Like a Serpent).

Along with American literature, she has taught Medical Humanities, Literature and the Natural World, Portraiture and Character in Literature and Art, Approaches to Autobiography, and a variety of writing courses including “Writing into the Unknown” and “Poetry and Prayer.”

In addition to the books listed on her website (marilynmcentyre.com), her writing has appeared in a wide variety of academic, faith-related, and trade publications.

She is increasingly convinced that writing is convergent with prayer in surprising ways, and that the words we “find” or “receive” when we write are invitations to us and to others to listen up and listen in.