Instructor: Marie Masters

Marie Masters is a “teacher who writes these days.” Once upon a time, however, she was a professional freelance writer who did a little teaching at the urging of a friend in the late 1990s. She liked the experience of teaching Composition at Schoolcraft College, and so when the opportunity to teach presented itself at Macomb Community College (MCC), she taught a few classes there as well. That was in 2000.

After teaching part-time at MCC and at St. Clair County Community College for several years, and conducting several writing and publishing workshops for Continuing Education at MCC, she joined MCC as full-time instructor of English and Journalism in 2003.

Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/Advertising (cum laude) from Oakland University in 1989. For the next five years, she worked both as an editor and writer while earning a Masters of Arts in English Literature from Oakland University. Upon completing her graduate work, Masters began a profitable freelance writing practice with a long list of corporate clients, such as Kmart Corporation and Visteon, and also freelanced for well-known advertising agencies like J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam.

Masters has written for the Detroit Free Press, Corp! Magazine (a metro-Detroit business publication), Healing Garden Journal, women’s consumer publications, and dozens of trade articles. She has also published a short story.

Additionally, Masters has contributed her writing skills as a Public Relations specialist to community-focused organizations such as HAVEN (Help Against Violent Encounters Now) in Pontiac, Clinton Watershed Council in Rochester and, most recently, promoting the Macomb Symphony Orchestra.

She is currently enrolled in a low-residency writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Non-Fiction.

Asked what is more rewarding, teaching or writing, Masters says, “Fortunately, I don’t have to choose between the two. Teaching lets me continue to be part of the creative process, whenever I show students how to write.”

“I have the perfect job,” she adds “teaching what I love to do most.”