Mary E. Knippel, Writer and Creativity Mentor

Mary E. Knippel is a writer who began writing in her journal at age 11 and hasn't stopped. Her first by-line was as the
Humor Editor for the Adams High School Tiger Tales. 

Mary has recently completed an Illustrated Discovery Journal Master Class
with Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of Simple Abundance
(www.simpleabundance.com) where students learned the art of interpretive
collage that reveals your passions, and unleashes your playful, intuitive,
creative powers.

A resident of the Bay Area’s Coastside since 1995, she and her family received a thorough introduction to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival as their moving men furiously unloaded furniture while the festival booths were being assembled on Main Street. She has worked for a weekly newspaper as well as free-lancing with various businesses, parenting, religious and community based newspapers and newsletters. Her work has appeared in periodicals in Minnesota, Colorado and California. She has been a free-lance writer for CoastViews Magazine for the past seven years and also writes and edits in a variety of other areas.

She has studied with such distinguished teachers as: Adair Lara, Anne Lamott, Carolyn J. Foster, Catherine Ann Jones, Carol Lorraine, Cathleen Rountree, Christina Baldwin, Cindy Fisher-Luck, Dana Metzger, Dana Reynolds, Hal Zina, Bennett, Kat Meads, Kathleen Adams, Natalie Goldberg, Sheila Bender, Patricia Hampl, and Trinstine Rainer.


As a breast cancer survivor, Mary used journaling and other creative outlets to complement traditional medicine. She is sharing her experience through speaking engagements and journaling workshops, along with developing a newsletter and web site encouraging women to use Creativity as a healing tool. Mary is also writing a memoir chronicling the ordinary and extraordinary journey to motherhood. She is the current President of the Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter, a board member of the San Francisco/Peninsula chapter of the California Writers Club, a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild, the National Association of Women Writers, the Bay Area Travel Writers, and a past president of the Coastside Women’s Club.