Marya’s life is made meaningful by being a mentor/mentee/collaborator to many and a pain in the neck to others. She teaches with several organizations around the city and facilitates public making as co-founder of the Mobilize Creative Collaborative. When not working on her novel, Marya writes fiction for exhibition or performance and interviews interdisciplinary literary artists for Sixty Inches from Center. She credits the deep, supportive relationships developed through informal writers’ groups as giving her confidence to invest in and share her own writing—a sense of community and self-worth she hopes to help Chicago’s visionary youth build through 826CHI. Marya holds degrees in Cinema and Media Studies (BA, University of Chicago) and Art Education (MA, University of Texas-Austin). A 10-year resident of McKinley Park, she fights good fights as part of Neighbors for Environmental Justice.