Mary Allen is the author of a literary memoir, The Rooms of Heaven, published by Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books, and a collection of personal essays, The Deep Limitless Air: A Memoir in Pieces, published by Blue Light Press.  She has received an NEA grant, has a regular blog on the Psychology Today website, and has published short work in Poets & Writers, Real Simple, Library Journal, CNN Online, Mayday, Tiferet Journal, The Chaos, Beloit Fiction Review, and in two anthologies: If I Don’t Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings and The Love Book.  She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Iowa City, where she is a full-time writing coach.