Her 2018 novel ECSTASY<\/a>\u00a0, drawn from the dramatic life of composer and life artist Alma Schindler Mahler, has been praised by NPR as “historical fiction at its best.”<\/p>\n Mary’s explorations into the hidden histories of Renaissance women compelled her to write\u00a0THE DARK LADY’S MASK<\/a>\u00a0, based on the story of the ground-breaking poet, Aemilia Bassano Lanier.<\/p>\n Mary lived for eighteen years in the Pendle region of Lancashire, England, the setting for her acclaimed novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL<\/a>, which recasts the Pendle Witches of 1612 in their historical context as cunning folk and healers.<\/p>\n Previously she lived in Germany. This, along with her interest in sacred music and herbal medicine, inspired her to write her award-winning ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN<\/a>,\u00a0which explores the life of the 12th century Benedictine abbess, composer, polymath, and powerfrau.<\/p>\n Winner of the 2013 Nautilus Gold Award, the 2005 WILLA Literary Award, and a Minnesota Book Award Finalist, Mary has also written the novels\u00a0SUMMIT AVENUE<\/a>, THE REAL MINERVA<\/a>,\u00a0THE VANISHING POINT<\/a>, and co-edited the subversive fiction anthology\u00a0BITCH LIT<\/a>, which celebrates female anti-heroes–strong women who break all the rules. Her short fiction has been published in\u00a0Twin Cities Noir\u00a0<\/em>and elsewhere.<\/p>\n Mary\u2019s articles and essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, The Huffington Post<\/em>, Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/em>, Enchanted Living, Lit Hub,<\/em> Minnesota Magazine<\/em>, and Historical Novels Review<\/em>. When she isn’t writing, she’s usually riding her spirited Welsh mare.<\/p>\n Fairy Tales for Women: Writing Exercise<\/a> Born in Minnesota, Mary now lives with her Belgian husband in Portugal, near the beautiful medieval town of Obidos. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1818,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"ruledecoration\"](\"https:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/ruledecoration.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nMore:<\/h3>\n
\nBy Mary Sharratt
\nThrough a Dark Forest: On Fairy Tales as Women’s Stories and on Writing Summit Avenue<\/a>
\nBy Mary Sharratt
\nSummit Avenue Author Uses Fairy Tales to Break Through Clich\u00e9s<\/a>
\nBy Mary Ann Grossman
\nMoments of Enchantment<\/a>\u00a0(at strangehorizons.com)
\nBy Christopher Cobb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"