Mary A. Agria (born March 24, 1941) is an American writer who spent her early career as a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

writer, then in 'retirement' began writing a series of novels that deal with the issues facing older Americans, including finding meaning in one's senior years, resolving parent-child relationships and facing the ultimate realities of change and loss that are part of the human experience. In 2006 her novel, ''Time in a Garden'', appeared on best-seller fiction lists all over northern

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. She has written five novels (''For Things Left Undone'', 2001; ''Time in a Garden'', 2006; ''Vox Humana: The Human Voice'', 2007; ''In Transit'', 2008; and ''Community of Scholars'', 2009) and numerous non-fiction books, articles and texts.

Life and influences

Childhood

Agria grew up in

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton () is the county seat of Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States, with small portions extending into Calumet County, Wisconsin, Calumet and Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Winnebago counties. Located on the Fox River (Green Bay tributary ...

where her mother worked as executive secretary to the president of a large fraternal life insurance company. Her father was a mechanical engineer with an international paper company. Family life instilled in her a deep love of writing and travel. As a sixth grader she wrote the winning script about Stephen Foster for a school drama contest. In high school and early college, she worked as a

summers for ''

The Post-Crescent ''The Post-Crescent'' is a daily newspaper based in Appleton, Wisconsin. Part of the Gannett chain of newspapers, it is primarily distributed in counties surrounding the Appleton/ Fox Cities area. History ''The Appleton Crescent'' was formed in ...

'' in Appleton, the paper that gave Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...

her start—a writer whose style Agria always admired.

Education

She earned her BA in English (1964) and an MA in German literature and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 1965. She spent 1962 and 1963 studying theater arts at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, Germany thanks to a

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

scholarship. Her undergrad thesis on the songs in

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

's '' Three Penny Opera'' and

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peach ...

's ''

Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of sati ...

'' was a winner of the UWM undergrad essay competition.

Early career

After a job in

Public Relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

and as freelance editor at UW Press-Madison, Agria became director of a Work-Education Council in Alma, Michigan designated by the

US Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemp ...

as a model for innovative community development programs. The experience resulted in consultancies and freelance writing assignments in the career field and on rural issues. Periodic moves throughout her marriage to now retired University President Dr. John Agria opened many diverse job and life changes all of which she uses in her writing. She wrote grants for a

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, NY, music school, worked as chaplain for United Campus Ministries in New York, and directed a community development think-tank at Thiel College in Pennsylvania. As researcher for the Center for Theology and Land in

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is a city in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 59,667 at the 2020 United States census. The city lies along the Mississippi River at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a region ...

, she traveled extensively, studied and wrote about rural life.

Recent years

Community building remains an important undercurrent in her novels, the power of relationships to promote growth and change. A church organist since her early teens, after "retiring" to

, New York, Agria served as organist/music director of several churches — a background she put to good use in her novel, ''Vox Humana: The Human Voice''. One of her many accomplishments as a church music director was producing and directing a fully staged medieval

mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...

, ''Nativity'', from her script compiled from several early manuscripts. She also learned to weave for ''Vox Humana'', seeing strong ties between music and that ancient art form. A love of

community gardening A community garden is a piece of land gardening, gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for thei ...

in the northern Michigan summer

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...

community of Bay View inspired her 2006 best-selling novel, ''Time in a Garden'' — a love song to the aging process, spirituality and gardening. ''In Transit'', about lives and families in transition, was researched on travels with her husband in their motor home, including a 2007 coast-to-coast book tour. As mother of four daughters and a growing brood of grandchildren, the healing power of love, family and community runs through her work.

Selected works

Novels

*''For Things Left Undone'', 2001 *''Time in a Garden'', 2006 *''Vox Humana: The Human Voice'', 2007 *''In Transit'', 2008 *''Community of Scholars'', 2009

Nonfiction books and texts

*"Enhancing Traditional and Innovative Rural Support Services," chapter in ''Toward a Rural Renaissance'' (USDOL 1981) *''Building Rural Linkages: a guide for work-education councils'' (MDOL 1981) *''Building Healthy Communities: Stories of 12 communities in the Midwest'' (Studies in Rural Ministry 1995) *''Winning the Rat Race: a common sense guide to job hunting and work force survival'' (1995, Wm. C. Brown) *''Rural Congregational Studies: a guide for good shepherds'' (co-author, 1997, Abingdon) *''Planting the Seeds of Community'' (vols. 1-2, Center for Theology and Land) *Articles and scholarly pieces: for Jo Bonomo How-To Series, Journal of the National Case Institute, Julien's Journal; a syndicated column on work and education ('Winning the Rat Race/Work Links', 20 years) in newspapers in Iowa and Pennsylvania; and currently a column on gardening and spirituality ('Time in a Garden') in the Petoskey, MI News Review.

External links

Mary Agria official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agria, Mary 1941 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American women novelists Writers from Appleton, Wisconsin University of Bonn alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni American women essayists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American essayists Novelists from Wisconsin