Marcia Butler’s (’16) has had several creative careers: professional musician, interior designer, documentary filmmaker, and author. During her thirty-year musical career, she performed as a principal oboist and soloist on the most renowned of New York and international stages, with many high-profile musicians and orchestras – including pianist Andre Watts and composer/pianist Keith Jarrett. The New York Times hailed her as a “first rate artist”. Her interior designs projects have been published in numerous shelter magazines and range up and down the East coast, from Boston to NYC to Miami. The Creative Imperative, her documentary film exploring the essence of creativity, was premiered at The New York Society Library and is now available on YouTube. As an author, Marcia’s nationally acclaimed memoir, The Skin Above My Knee, was one of the Washington Post’s “Top ten noteworthy moments in classical music in 2017”. Her debut novel, Pickle’s Progress, was hailed by Michael Schaub of NPR. “Surprising and audacious, Pickle’s Progress succeeds because of Butler’s willingness to take risks and her considerable charisma. She’s a gifted storyteller with a uniquely dry sense of humor and a real sympathy for her characters.” Her third book, Oslo, Maine, draws on indelible memories of performing for many years at a chamber music festival in central Maine. While there, Marcia came to love the majestic moose who roam at their perpetual peril among the humans. Bethanne Patrick of Literary Hub noted, “The author’s deep compassion for a different species means that you will wonder why more writers don’t choose to include all manner of beasts in their narratives.” Marcia’s writing has been published in The Washington Post, Literary Hub, PANK Magazine, Psychology Today, Aspen Ideas Magazine, Catapult, Bio-Stories, Kenyon Review, and others. She was a 2015 recipient of a Writer-in-Residence through Aspen Words and the Catto Shaw Foundation and was a writing fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2018 and 2019. After four decades in New York City, Marcia now calls New Mexico home.