.png)
Annette Marquis
I would love to say that writing is my only passion but, truth-be-told, I have so many passions that writing has to fall in line with all the rest. I am first and foremost a lesbian feminist committed to justice and equity for all people. My activism is fueled by my conviction that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. I am determined to leave the world a better place than when I found it in Plymouth, Michigan in 1955.
I have a Master of Social Work degree from Boston University that I applied to a twenty-five-year career in chemical dependency treatment and crisis intervention services. In my later years, I received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Nonfiction from the Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program, now associated with Lasell University in Newton, MA.
Writing is a vital tool in my activist tool bag. Over the years, I’ve discovered that writing is a craft that can be learned but that great writing must be felt. I continue to study both craft and feeling. I've co-authored over twenty-five books on Microsoft Office products, published a memoir, and contributed to multiple anthologies.
To give back to the writing community, I worked for several years as the Program Director for James River Writers, an organization based in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to building community by connecting and inspiring writers and all those in central Virginia with a love for the written word.
As I child, I grew up in the BB Gun Capitol of the World, Rogers, Arkansas (as when Ralphie from A Christmas Story said, “I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!”). Rogers also had the distinction of being the site of the first Wal-Mart store in the world, a phenomenon that has changed everything in immeasurable ways.
Growing up in Rogers, I learned a lot about being different. My family and I were Roman Catholic, Republican, and Yankees, three identities that didn’t always mesh well with our mostly Baptist, Southern Democrat neighbors. When I came out as a lesbian in 1973, I felt even more removed.
It was when I came to grips with Roger’s distinction as a sundown town (a town that threatened Black people from staying in town passed sundown), however, that I vowed to dedicate my life to eliminating racism and oppression. I’m happy to say that Northwest Arkansas has come a long way since my childhood days, both in terms of its acceptance of LGBTQ folks and of people of color. However, there is still much work to do to achieve full equality for all people.
In 1995, I co-founded and served as the first president of Allies for Racial Equity, a Unitarian Universalist organization, a group of white anti-racist allies who serve as partners to People of Color in the journey of transforming our faith movement and the world. Through this work, I learned that it’s up to me, as a white person, to speak out against racism, to challenge racist systems, and address all forms of oppression, wherever they exist.
Because of my experiences in Rogers and elsewhere, I became a student of the Civil Rights Movement. To further that work, I co-founded a non-profit organization, Living Legacy Project, Inc, that among other civil rights education, leads spiritual pilgrimages through Mississippi and Alabama and other places critical to the Movement. I currently serve as its Director of Operations.
Being handed the key to open the door to the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Dexter Parsonage, 309 S. Jackson St. in Montgomery, AL, by Dr. Shirley Cherry, tour director extraordinaire, was one of the greatest honors of my life.
I am also one of the organizers of the Greater Richmond Pledge to End Racism and co-developer of the Living the Pledge workshop. The Richmond Pledge, based on the Birmingham Pledge, is a personal commitment to work to dismantle racism.
In 2016, I completed 10 years of service to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) where I served as LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director and District Executive of the Southeast District. In both of those roles, I was able to address my commitment to making real Martin Luther King’s vision of Beloved Community. As a UUA staff member, I had the privilege of working with congregations all around the US to help them deepen their understanding and practice of welcoming and inclusion.
When I needed a different challenge in my life after my social work career, I co-founded TRIAD Consulting, LLC, a technology training firm. Even though I’m no longer a partner in TRIAD, technology remains a passion for me. This sometimes gets me into trouble as I look for technological solutions to problems that might be better solved through relationship building. Finding this balance is one of our greatest challenges of the 21st century, and of my life!
If you’re wondering if I’m too intense to have a little fun, I spend my discretionary time (yes, believe = it or not, I do have some!) enjoying travel, gardening, watching the birds, hiking, photography, kayaking, and following women’s basketball (Go Lady Vols!), sometimes alone, but preferably, with my poet-librarian wife, Wendy. Since 2010, my home base has been Richmond, Virginia.
I have a Master of Social Work degree from Boston University that I applied to a twenty-five-year career in chemical dependency treatment and crisis intervention services. In my later years, I received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Nonfiction from the Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program, now associated with Lasell University in Newton, MA.
Writing is a vital tool in my activist tool bag. Over the years, I’ve discovered that writing is a craft that can be learned but that great writing must be felt. I continue to study both craft and feeling. I've co-authored over twenty-five books on Microsoft Office products, published a memoir, and contributed to multiple anthologies.
To give back to the writing community, I worked for several years as the Program Director for James River Writers, an organization based in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to building community by connecting and inspiring writers and all those in central Virginia with a love for the written word.
As I child, I grew up in the BB Gun Capitol of the World, Rogers, Arkansas (as when Ralphie from A Christmas Story said, “I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!”). Rogers also had the distinction of being the site of the first Wal-Mart store in the world, a phenomenon that has changed everything in immeasurable ways.
Growing up in Rogers, I learned a lot about being different. My family and I were Roman Catholic, Republican, and Yankees, three identities that didn’t always mesh well with our mostly Baptist, Southern Democrat neighbors. When I came out as a lesbian in 1973, I felt even more removed.
It was when I came to grips with Roger’s distinction as a sundown town (a town that threatened Black people from staying in town passed sundown), however, that I vowed to dedicate my life to eliminating racism and oppression. I’m happy to say that Northwest Arkansas has come a long way since my childhood days, both in terms of its acceptance of LGBTQ folks and of people of color. However, there is still much work to do to achieve full equality for all people.
In 1995, I co-founded and served as the first president of Allies for Racial Equity, a Unitarian Universalist organization, a group of white anti-racist allies who serve as partners to People of Color in the journey of transforming our faith movement and the world. Through this work, I learned that it’s up to me, as a white person, to speak out against racism, to challenge racist systems, and address all forms of oppression, wherever they exist.
Because of my experiences in Rogers and elsewhere, I became a student of the Civil Rights Movement. To further that work, I co-founded a non-profit organization, Living Legacy Project, Inc, that among other civil rights education, leads spiritual pilgrimages through Mississippi and Alabama and other places critical to the Movement. I currently serve as its Director of Operations.
Being handed the key to open the door to the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Dexter Parsonage, 309 S. Jackson St. in Montgomery, AL, by Dr. Shirley Cherry, tour director extraordinaire, was one of the greatest honors of my life.
I am also one of the organizers of the Greater Richmond Pledge to End Racism and co-developer of the Living the Pledge workshop. The Richmond Pledge, based on the Birmingham Pledge, is a personal commitment to work to dismantle racism.
In 2016, I completed 10 years of service to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) where I served as LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director and District Executive of the Southeast District. In both of those roles, I was able to address my commitment to making real Martin Luther King’s vision of Beloved Community. As a UUA staff member, I had the privilege of working with congregations all around the US to help them deepen their understanding and practice of welcoming and inclusion.
When I needed a different challenge in my life after my social work career, I co-founded TRIAD Consulting, LLC, a technology training firm. Even though I’m no longer a partner in TRIAD, technology remains a passion for me. This sometimes gets me into trouble as I look for technological solutions to problems that might be better solved through relationship building. Finding this balance is one of our greatest challenges of the 21st century, and of my life!
If you’re wondering if I’m too intense to have a little fun, I spend my discretionary time (yes, believe = it or not, I do have some!) enjoying travel, gardening, watching the birds, hiking, photography, kayaking, and following women’s basketball (Go Lady Vols!), sometimes alone, but preferably, with my poet-librarian wife, Wendy. Since 2010, my home base has been Richmond, Virginia.
