Margery Irvine
Lecturer in English
Margery Irvine is a New Yorker who came to Maine in the 1970’s and raised five children on a farm in Troy. During those years, her voice became familiar to every Maine Public Broadcasting listener who knew and enjoyed her radio essays on literature, small-town living and life in general.
Faithfully commuting in the worst of weather from Troy and later from Blue Hill, Marge has taught hundreds of students over the years. She regularly teaches Writers of Maine, is an experienced teacher of professional writing, has developed a popular course on Writing Creative Nonfiction, and has long served as course coordinator for our 200-level course in argument and persuasion.
Despite her busy teaching load, Marge finds time to devour all the best new books, and she has also been active as a journalist and editor. The 1990 anthology she co-edited with Kathleen Ellis, The Eloquent Edge: Fifteen Maine Women Writers, helped to introduce readers to contemporary Maine writers and sparked a lively debate about just who belongs in that category. In recent years she has been primary organizer of the Maine Writing Series sponsored by the English Department. She has also led many book discussions around the state, often as participating humanist with the Maine Humanities Council. Her newest such offering is a series called “Making A Difference: How Love and Duty Change Lives.” Marge also has led a long-running discussion series on literature and medicine for health care professionals at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
Marge’s wit and storytelling skills are much appreciated in the English Department, where her presence always makes committee work more bearable and coffee pot conversations more lively. Her intelligent, pragmatic approach helped to bring about a major revision of the department’s governance structure in the early 1990s that has served us well over the years. We have benefited greatly from her talents and energies, and send hearty congratulations to Marge for these 25 years of service.