Pen Name:
Marcia Butler
Genres:
Fiction, Memoir
Websites:
MarciaButler.com
Amazon Author Page
Social Media:
Bio
Prior to becoming an author, Marcia had several creative careers: professional oboist, interior designer, and documentary filmmaker. 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. Her interior design 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, premiered in 2019 at The New York Society Library. She is the author of the nationally acclaimed memoir The Skin Above My Knee and two novels, Pickle’s Progress and Oslo, Maine. Her third novel, Dear Virginia, Wait for Me, was released in early May 2025. After many decades in New York City, Marcia now makes New Mexico her home.
Books
Title: Dear Virginia, Wait for Me
Publisher: Central Avenue/Simon and Schuster (2025)
Genre: Literary Fiction
“Full of wit, charm, and its fair share of everything bagels, Marcia Butler’s moving book manages to be a warm and generous New York novel while grappling with the ghosts of childhood trauma, lost literary heroes, and societal definitions of “madness”. Her protagonist believes she’s being guided by the voice of Virginia Woolf, but it is Butler’s voice — comforting and astute, alive to the music of kindness as well as betrayal — that holds you to the end.” ~ Jonathan Lee, international best-selling author of High Dive and The Great Mistake
Available for Sale
Title: Oslo, Maine
Publisher: Central Avenue (2021)
Genre: Literary Fiction
“OSLO, MAINE is an enchantment; I read it in two sittings, utterly absorbed, spellbound by this world where everyone–even a mother moose–has secrets and hidden yearnings (and unexpected capacities), and where even damage can prove to be a redemptive gift. Marcia Butler is a master dramatist, a sorceress, and extraordinary novelist; this book will break your heart and heal it.” ~ E.J. Levy, author of The Cape Doctor
Available for Sale
Title: Pickle’s Progress
Publisher: Central Avenue (2019)
Genre: Literary Fiction
“The four main characters in Pickle’s Progress seem more alive than most of the people we know in real life because their fears and desires are so nakedly exposed. That’s because their creator, Marcia Butler, possesses truly scary X-ray vision and intelligence to match.” ~ Richard Russo
Available for Sale
Title: The Skin Above My Knee, a Memoir
Publisher: Little, Brown (2017)
Genre: Memoir
“With clear-eyed courage and spare, lyrical prose, The Skin Above My Knee carries us not only into the mesmerizingly compelling world of a professional oboist, it also takes us into her love-starved childhood, her self-destructive young adulthood, and a descent into a solitary darkness that only her art can save her from; Marcia Butler has composed her own music here, and it is filled with passion and yearning and ultimately the kind of beauty that can save us all. This is a gorgeous book.” ~ Andre Dubus III, author of Gone So Long