Mary Rakow is an American novelist.

She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from University of California, Riverside,^[1] in 1970,^[2] from Harvard University with a master's degree in Theological Studies, and from Boston College with a Ph.D. in Theology, Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society. Her work has appeared in Works & Conversations.^[3] She has appeared on Writers on Writing, with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett KUCI-FM.^[4]

Rakow is a member of PEN Center USA/West, where she has mentored in the PEN Rosenthal Emerging Voices Program.^[5]

Rakow is a novelist and freelance editor living in San Francisco as an urban hermit in the ancient Catholic Christian tradition.

• 2002 10 Best Books in the West, L.A. Times, 2002
• 2003 Lannan Literary Fellowship^[6]
• 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist^[7]
• 2010 Whale and Star residency in the studio of Enrique Martínez Celaya

• "Poeta: from The Memory Room". In Posse Review (12).
• Mary Rakow. (28 Feb 2002). The Memory Room. Counterpoint Press. ISBN 978-1-58243-172-7.
• Matthew Biro, Leo A. Harrington, Mary Rakow (2012). Martinez Celaya, Working Methods. Ediciones Poligrafa. ISBN 978-84-343-1316-3.
• Mary Rakow. (15 Dec 2015). This Is Why I Came, a novel. Counterpoint Press. ISBN 978-1-61902-575-2.