Mary Lawlor was born in Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in a Marine Corps and later Army family. Because her father was a fighter pilot, the family moved every two or three years throughout her childhood. She lived in many places in the US and Europe, attended the American College in Paris and graduated from the University of Maryland. She earned an MA and PhD in English and American literature at New York University and became a Professor of English and American Studies at Muhlenberg College.

She has published three books: Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West (Rutgers University Press 2000), Public Native America: Tribal Self Representations in Casinos, Museums, and Powwows (Rutgers University Press, 2006) and Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War (Rowman and Littlefield 2013, paperback 2015).
She is currently working on her first novel, The Translators, set in 12th-century Spain, which fictionalizes the experiences of Robert of Ketton, first translator of the Koran into Latin.

She is married to writer and professor John McClure. They spend half the year in Easton, Pennsylvania and the other half at their mountain home in Gaucin, Spain.

Representation:
Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Studio B Productions
The Time Keeper’s Room: Bill Goodall