HELLO!

My name is Mari (rhymes with starry) and I'm a writer, artist, speaker, teacher, and needle-felting enthusiast living in New York. 

I grew up in Seattle, went to college in Chicago, taught English in Chile, and spent a few years working a series of retail/food/nonprofit jobs in Baltimore and DC. My life experience has been my best writing teacher.

My first book, Am I There Yet? is a New York Times Bestselling collection of observations from being in my 20s and navigating the murky waters of bad jobs, fun adventures, grief, moving, finding community, and creating home in a studio apartment.

I wrote my second book, My Inner Sky, when I was recovering from illness and finding home within myself again. It’s an ode to the experiences that make up a whole life, not necessarily a purely happy one. It was published in March 2021 by Penguin.

My third book, How to be a Living Thing, sprouted from the fecund mud of the 2020 Covid pandemic and how much time I spent wondering about human nature during that time. It comes out on July 15, 2025 and I’m just thrilled about it.

I lead workshops on creativity, healing, and personal resilience, and I speak on these topics too! You can listen to a talk of mine here.

I write a weekly-ish reflection via my newsletter, which you can read for free here.

​Literary representation by the lovely Cindy Uh at CAA.