About the author

Marina Pickett was born in Berkley California and grew up in the northern part of the state. She was home schooled until 6th grade before moving to Covelo, California. There she grew up amidst several Native American tribes. Marina continued home schooling for part of high school and received her diploma from Round Valley High. She moved to Massachusetts in 1987 when she was eighteen.

Marina is a graduate of Massasoit Community College and is currently attending Bridgewater State College,Massachusetts, working toward a major in English Education. She has completed several classes related to writing including English Composition I and II, American Literature I and II, Creative Writing, Newspaper Journalism, and Writing about Literature, Women Writers since 1900, The Age of Johnson, Southern Literature, Modern American Drama, and Play Production.

At Massasoit Community College, Marina created the Massasoit Writers Club and published Ousamequin, Yellow Feather, an all-college literary journal. Ousamequin, Yellow Feather was released in May of 2006. She organized poetry readings and was a regular writer for the college newspaper. In February of 2004 she was honored at the Annual Women in History Breakfast for her role and accomplishments as a female student where she presented her poem Woman. In 2003, Marina coordinated and established an on-campus Free Legal Clinic service for students at Massasoit.  At Bridgewater State College, Marina is a writer and sports photographer for the newspaper, and all around great student.

Marina has received numerous honors and awards including, The Rosemary Rice Award, 2003, Massasoit Radio and TV, Brockton, MA, the prestigious Green Key Society for excellent leadership, academic progress and unselfish contribution to college and community as a part of Massasoit Community, The American Association of Community Colleges, Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, and USA Today. Click here to view a list of honors and awards.

She has participated in many conferences and events including, The Ninth Annual Undergraduate Conference, World Trade Center Boston, 2003: a presentation on the writing process; experimenting with different points of view, New England Center for Inclusive Teaching University of Massachusetts Boston, 2003: a presentation on how diversity in curriculum content, pedagogy, and classroom demographics affects academic success, Collegiate Invitational Leadership Summit On Race Politics and Economy, Cape Cod Community College, 2003: a presentation on how racism manifests itself in society today, and The Tenth Annual Undergraduate Conference Boston, 2004: a presentation on how early American literature can influence the reader as a writer, and more.

Marina is a single parent of one child and has worked with individuals with special needs for more than forteen years. She is a baseball nut having volunteered for her community’s little league for eight years. Professionally, Marina is a web site and graphic designer, writer, human service provider, thesbian, and scholar. She has two dogs.  Her future goals are to support herself and other aspiring authors through fundraising and writing, write script for television, write a book about her life, send her son to college, and to finish college with a Masters degree in American Literature. She supports Barack Obama. 

Ms. Pickett is author of Original Vision Through Creative Writing, a self published book of poetry and fiction.

    Posted February 2006