Mary Collins

Mary Collins worked for more than 20 years in Washington, D.C. as a freelance writer and editor and taught part-time at Johns Hopkins University's graduate MA in Writing program from 1995 to 2007. She has published three adult nonfiction books, American Idle: A Journey Through Our Sedentary Culture (Capital Books, 2009), The Essential Daughter: Changing Expectations for Girls at Home (Praeger), and National Public Radio (Seven Locks Press). In 2008 she edited New Models for News for the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at Louisiana State University, a collection of essays from eight major players in the media industry, including Pulitzer-Prize winner Geneva Overholser and former "60 Minutes" producer and founder of the Center for Public Integrity Charles Lewis.

Collins has also written many books for hire for major clients, including the Smithsonian American Art Musuem (SAAM), Grolier, and McGraw-Hill. In 2003 National Geographic Books published her award-winning young adult biography of the Wright brothers, Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Her articles have appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major newspapers and magazines. She has won Best Essay of the Year Awards from ASJA and AIW (twice) and earned starred reviews from Kirkus Review, Booklist and the New York Public Library.

She is currently a full-time professor of creative nonfiction at Central Connecticut State University.