mjwstrong40@gmail.com

Marianne Wilski Strong is a writer and lecturer.   She has published forty-five short stories in major mystery magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine,  in anthologies, and has also published numerous professional articles.  She has given numerous lectures on various topics, at various venues, including libraries, retirement communities, clubs and county and national organizations.  She has taught nine courses for Road Scholar at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania, as well as courses on detective fiction,  on ancient Greece and its literature, on the short story, and on classic American literature at retirement communities.  She holds a BA in Literature from Misericordia University and an MA in Literature from the University of Maryland.  She received the Faculty Teaching Award from Prince George's Community College in Maryland and the Professional Achievement Award from Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania.

                                                    

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Marianne has published a series of short stories set in ancient Greece, using her experience traveling in Greece, teaching and researching Greek literature and mythology.
  
   The Lyre's Song  - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,  July/August 2002
   Death in an Olive Grove - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2003
   Death at Olympia - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,  July/August 2003
   Death at the Festiival - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, March 2004
   Death at the Theatre - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November/December 2005
   Death at the Port - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, July/August 2005
   Death at Delphi - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2006
                                                                    Death in the Keramikos Cemetery - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2008
                                                                    Death at Syracusa - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,  October 2009
   

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A second series of mystery short stories is set in and around Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where  Marianne was born and raised.  Her stories set in Northeastern Pennsylvania call upon its rich ethnic population and its coal producing days as essential background to the mystery.

   Medusa in Mourning - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, December 1990
   Blue Ice - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January 1993
  The Shaft - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September 1993
  The Shooters - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 1996
  Wedding  Blues - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 1997
  The Flood - Mordsweiber (Anthology), Elefanten Press, Berlin 1998
  Murder to Die For - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 1998
  The Last Vigil - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, August 1999 (voted one of the ten favorites           
                               of the year by readers)
                                             Cabbages and Things - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,  July/August 2000
                                             Fine for Littering - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May 2001
                                             The Honored Guest - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January 2001;  reprinted in the anthology
                                                                                   Mystery: The Best of 2001, editor: Jon L. Breen, ibooks, July 2002
                                             St. Casimir's Fire - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2007
                                             Case Capped - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2008
                                             A Private Battle - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, July/August 2008
                                             Evil by Design - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May 2009
                                             Hard as a Rock - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2010
                                             The Breaker -Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June, 2015.
                                              Warsaw - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, December, 2015
                                             The Second Storm - Storm Warning (An Anthology of mystery stories),
​                                                     Wildside Press, 2016
                                              Your Cheatin' Heart - Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies, Wildside Press, 2018 

                                

                                            

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      Currently,  Marianne is working on two new series of mystery short stories. The first reflects
       her interest in medieval art, architecture and literature.
      Capitalizing on the many monasteries she has visited in both
      Europe and the United States, Marianne features in this series
      two characters:
                                Abbot Joseph and Brother Leo      

 My Heart's Abhorrence - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, December 2010
The Abbot and the Diamond - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Dec. 2012
                                 The Abbot and the Ruby - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, July,August 2014
​                                 The Abbot and the Garnets - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2018
                                   
​                                 The second series, set in Cape May, New Jersey, features Amanda Gillman, a Cape May resident, who uses
                                  the gothic and mystery stories of Louisa May Alcott to solve contemporary mysteries.
                                               Louisa and the Silver Buckle - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 2016
​                                               Louisa and the Lighthouse   -Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,    January-February, 2018
                    
​                                   Click on the link below to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to blog on the Louisa series.

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LINK: ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE

  Marianne has taught and lectured at various venues: Retirement Villages, Road Scholar, Maryland Statewide Lecture Series.  

​ COURSES TAUGHT:                                                                                         LECTURES:
 The History of Detective Fiction                                                       A Short History of Detective Fiction
 The American Short Story                                                                Tragedy and Triumph: A Short History
 Paris Revisited: American Writers in Paris                                             of Coal Mining in Northeastern PA
 The Immigrant Story through Literature                                       Images of War in Literature
 Classic American Novels                                                                   Writing as Healing
                           The History of Writing and Books                                                    Poetry of World War I
                           The Greeks and Us: The Legacy of Ancient Greece                        Shakespeare's First Folio
​                           Coal Mining Story Through Literature: Triumph and Tragedy       The Gilded Age
​                           Writing Your Story
                            Ancient Greek Theatre: Tragedy and Comedy
                            Foundations of Western Literature
                            American Writers in Paris
                            Rebels, Misfits, Revolutionaries in American short stories and poetry
                            Literature of the Gilded Age
                            Myths in American Literature from the West to the Lost Cause of the South

                                                    Click on the link to The Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
                                      and go to podcasts to hear Marianne reading the story "Death at Olympia,"  set at the
                                      Olympic games in ancient Greece.                        

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