Meet Maria and Maren

After teaching and working in early education for a decade, Maria Mankin has published six books with Pilgrim Press and has contributed to several anthologies. She is also a co-author of Circ, a mystery set in Skegness England, published by Pigeon Park Press, and Pitching Our Tents: Poetry of Hospitality. She is a regular contributor to Living Psalms, a collection in which the Psalms are reinterpreted in poetry and art as a reflection of God’s work of justice and compassion. She is currently working on a book of poetry and the sequel to the LGBTQIA-inclusive cozy mystery series that begins with Death in Fair Havens, due out in April 2022.

After trouping the country in the 70s as assistant manager of theatrical tours for choreographer Agnes de Mille, The National Theatre of Great Britain, The Royal Shakespeare Company and the first Black Broadway production of ‘Guys and Dolls,’ Maren Tirabassi changed careers, much to the surprise of everyone, to study for the ministry at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and later at Harvard Divinity School. Ordained in the United Church of Christ, she served as a bi-vocational pastor to seven churches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire while developing her writing career. Maren is the author of twenty-two books, fiction, non-fiction and poetry, the majority published by The Pilgrim Press. 

A former Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH, and LAMDA Prize nominee for Transgendering Faith, Identity, Sexuality and Spirituality she currently facilitates programs for the NH Humanities Council with New Americans and people with cognitive difference, and leads poetry and memoir workshops in prisons, recovery groups, churches and synagogues, hospice and survivor groups, and provides justice-based content for activist groups, as well as curating the Living Psalms project for the UCC. She blogs at giftsinopenhands@wordpress.com. 

With frequent writing collaborator, Maria Mankin, she is currently editing Death in the Woods, the sequel to Death at Fair Havens, in their ability-inclusive cozy series, as well as plotting the third novel.

Literary Agent: Ben Miller-Callihan of Handspun Lit.

Contact at us at: tirabassi.mankin@gmail.com