Marilyn Taylor McDowell

Marilyn Taylor McDowell has been bringing children and books together for more than twenty-five years, volunteering as a school librarian, a cultural arts chairperson, and a storyteller, and working as a teacher and as the proprietor of a children’s bookshop.

Marilyn lives in a farmhouse on the remaining 30 acres of an old farm in North Chittenden, Vermont with her husband, Peter, their yellow lab, Hunter, and their Springer Spaniel, Benjamin. Pearl, an old gray cat, lives here too and is queen of the house. Marilyn and her husband are hoping to build and grow the place into a homestead. Here is where Marilyn finished writing Carolina Harmony, her first novel for children.

One of seven children, Marilyn was raised by her Scots-Irish father who had been a farmer for most of his life and her Scottish mother who was a homemaker as well as Marilyn’s favorite storyteller. She is grateful for the blessings of growing up in a large family in a rural farming community and has reconnected with the simple pleasures that come with country living. She attributes her love of the natural world to having had the freedom, as a child, to explore the woods and fields and ponds for whole days. Influenced by her parents’ strong sensibilities and high values, Marilyn brings a simplicity of living to the characters in her stories, trying to understand what makes us human and what connects us to one another.

Marilyn remembers the excitement of receiving her first library card. She loved that the children’s room was filled with picture books. She gives credit for her education to all the public libraries in all the towns where she has lived. She likes to refer to libraries as The University for the People. Her self-directed studies continue, mostly at the library, satisfying her curiosity in everything from botany to cooking. When writing her own books, she uses the library to research history and setting. Truly, she believes, reading is lifelong learning.

She remembers her mother’s words: If you can read, and read well, you can do anything.

Marilyn is a graduate of Katharine Gibbs School in Boston. Having prepared for the business world, she landed her first job at a dude ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Taking folks on a 6 am trail ride is not in the typical job description for an Administrative Assistant, and Marilyn jumped at the opportunity. It was quite the adventure; arriving in a desert land, alien and strange, and coming to know the beauty of it. One memorable event was riding her Arabian mare and encountering a rattlesnake, coiled up and rattling its tail.

Marilyn completed a children’s writing course at The Institute of Children’s Literature when her children were toddlers, but it was not until her youngest was off to college that she learned she was a recipient of Connecticut’s Tassy Walden: New Voices in Children’s Literature Award. This was for her picture book text, When Harry’s Ready. Marilyn has held tenaciously to the axiom never give up and she hasn’t. She went on to receive a Letter of Merit from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for her submission, Carolina Harmony. This mid-grade novel is her first published book for children. Never give up.

When Marilyn is not writing, she’s hiking in the mountains or tending to her organic garden; planting, harvesting, cooking it up, putting it up and taking the extra to area food shelves. An avid life-long volunteer, she currently spends a part of every week restocking produce at her local food co-op.

Currently, she is at work on a second mid-grade novel. It takes place in 1770 New England. Her protagonist is an indentured servant girl intent on freedom. This multi-layered tale of adventure and suspense brings together a unique set of characters united in a common purpose.