About Mariah

Mariah is a former ICU nurse turned author who traded her stethoscope for a pen, deciding words were their own kind of medicine. The Pattern Shop is her debut novel—about learning to choose home with a suitcase heart.  Her poetry has appeared in Poetry South, The Walnut Street Branch, and Entwined: Motherhood and Creativity. She also writes the newsletter Heartbeats, a community for creative caregivers.

Her writing explores what it means to belong—what pulls us together and pushes us apart, and how we can honor the beautiful messiness of becoming. Embracing the both/and of life, her work is for anyone who needs permission to hold grief and joy side by side. She believes that in spite of it all, we belong to each other. 

She lives in Chattanooga, TN with her husband and toddler, where you'll find her in the garden, on a trail, or not following recipes in the kitchen.

For early glimpses of the stories that helped shape The Pattern Shop, from rural Missouri to Morocco, visit www.thebarefootbeat.com.