| While Marianne’s roots are in Joliet, her family was part of the Eastern European emigration that helped to build Joliet’s diverse community. |
| Marianne Wolf was born and raised in Joliet. Marianne attended high school at Saint Francis Academy in Joliet, and is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She also studied European Literature in Paris and Brussels, and Business Management in London and Lucerne. Marianne is an MFA candidate in the Fiction Writing Program of Columbia College Chicago. While Marianne’s roots are in Joliet, her family was part of the Eastern European emigration that helped to build Joliet’s diverse community. What is significant to me is the fact that both of my great grandfathers were Croatian immigrants who brought their sons with them to Joliet. At the age of 16, my paternal grandfather decided not to return with his father to their native village Plešce, Croatia though the rest of his brothers and sisters remained in Croatia. My maternal great grandfather was from the village of Mrkopali. I remember both my grandfathers as hard working, determined men who never complained. My parents and grandparents taught me life’s values: the importance of family, the neighborhood parish and its community, education, and my work ethic.” Following family traditions, Marianne is an active member of the Joliet Croatian Cultural Club, Croatian Fraternal Union of America (Lodge 18), the Slovenian Women’s Union of America (Branch 20), and a 50-year member of Kranjsko Slovenska Katoliska Jednota (Lodge 20). Her grandfather proudly enrolled her in the latter when she was only a toddler! Booklist Magazine called “The Voile Dress” heartrending, and this poignant work of fiction was selected as a 2004 winner of the Illinois Woman’s Press Association’s Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest. Marianne’s stories have also appeared in Zajednicar, the national newspaper of the Croatian Fraternal Union of America and KSKJ Voice, a publication of the American Slovenian Catholic Union. Serving the community is important to Marianne. She served as Director of Volunteers for Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs (1996- 2008) designing the overall volunteer program for the department. She also developed the volunteer program for the first American venue of the 4th International Congress of Educating Cities. She says, “By involving citizens from a variety of neighborhoods and communities that are Chicago into the Department’s programs and activities — extraordinary things happen….” Marianne represented Chicago as an Ambassador during the 1994 World Cup. She currently serves as the President of the Illinois Woman's Press Association, on the executive board of the National Federation of Press Women and the Illinois Wesleyan University Chicago Alumni Board. |
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