Marie Croke
Photo of Marie Croke (copyright Steve Coogan) permitted to be used for promotional purposes. More promotional photo variations available below.
50 Word Bio
Marie Croke, an award-winning author and graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, has had stories published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex Magazine, and Fireside, among many other fine magazines. You can find her online at mariecroke.com or chat with her @marie_croke on x/twitter. She lives in Maryland with her family.
100 Word Bio (includes social links)
Marie Croke is a fantasy and science-fiction writer living in Maryland with her family, all of whom like to scribble messages in her notebooks when she’s not looking. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and her stories can be found in over a dozen magazines, including Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Zooscape, Cast of Wonders, Diabolical Plots, Factor Four and Fireside. She has worked as a slush editor and first reader for multiple magazines, and her reviews can be found in Apex Magazine. You can find her online at mariecroke.com or chat with her @marie_croke on x/twitter.
100 Word Bio
Marie Croke is an award-winning fantasy and science-fiction writer living in Maryland with her family, all of whom like to scribble messages in her notebooks when she’s not looking. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and her stories can be found in over a dozen magazines, including Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Factor Four, Cast of Wonders, Diabolical Plots, and Fireside. She has worked as a slush editor and first reader for multiple magazines, including khōréō and Dark Matter, and her reviews can be found in Apex Magazine. Her hobbies include crochet, birding, and aerial dance.
Longer Bio
Marie Croke is a fantasy and science-fiction writer who won the Writers of the Future Contest (Vol. 28) with the story “Of Woven Wood.” She has since gone on to have over forty stories published in numerous anthologies and magazines such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Diabolical Plots, Apex Magazine, Zooscape, Lackinton’s, Apparition Lit, Factor Four, Cast of Wonders, and Fireside! Her work leans toward the literary dark fantasy and science-fiction, with occasional forays into the light and humorous, and often centers some form of mystery at its core. Themes that often appear in her writing relate to relationships with oneself or family, acceptance of oneself or one’s passions regardless of cultural pressures, depression and its costs and effects, and the subversion of cultural norms or traditions.
She went to bed with a miniature dictionary (she still has it) before she was school-aged. She’s been an avid reader since kindergarten and has been writing stories since first grade. She borrowed (more like stole…temporarily) books from sisters and hid them under her pillow. It made her sleep better.
During high school she was the editor of the school newspaper. She holds an Economics degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and has worked in finance and written articles for her local newspaper. Her hobbies include crocheting, birding, kayaking, and aerial dancing (apparatus of choice being the lyra and hammock). She currently lives in Maryland with her family, all of whom like to scribble messages in her notebooks when she’s not looking.
You can contact her at mariecroke[at]gmail.com, find recent news at mariecroke.com, or chat with her on x/twitter @marie_croke or instagram (@wandering_fantasy_writer) or bluesky (@mariecroke.bsky.social).
Quotes
“In her fiction, Marie takes heart-wrenchingly sad and/or disturbing premises and makes them exquisitely beautiful with her mastery of syntax and diction. You will never be disappointed that you read a Marie Croke story…”
~Lesley Conner, Editor-in-Chief, Apex Magazine
“I love the twists and turns of this story, and the way I truly wasn’t sure where it was taking me, but I definitely wanted to be there for the ride.
~Maria Haskins, on “Like Ladybugs, Bright Spots in Your Mailbox”
“The story aims directly for the feels and hits with a devastating force, but it hurts so good.”
~Charles Payseur, in Locus Magazine, on “Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh”
Promotional Photos
mariecroke.com 