About the Author

Mary Grace van der Kroef

Mary was born in the fall of 1987 in the small Northwestern Ontario town of Fort Frances. Her parents raised her and her seven siblings in Devlin, Ontario.

She married the love of her life, Bram van der Kroef, in 2007 and is now the proud parent to three beautiful children.

In the summer of 2020, Mary and her family moved from Northwestern Ontario to settle in the Niagara Region.

Mary’s Christian faith and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ greatly influence all her work, whether written for the Christian market, or for the secular.

Early Life:

Mary was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school. Some of her fondest memories are of playing, learning, and yes even squabbling alongside her brothers and sisters.

Early Writing Influences:

Mary’s interest in writing and story started at an early age. Some of her favourite books were Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren and The Mandie Series by Lois Gladys Leppard. As she grew works like The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard, The Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle, The Sevenwaters Series by Juliet Marillier, The Dragon Riders of Purn by Ann McCaffrey and many more have greatly influenced Mary’s writing and storytelling styles.

At the age of fourteen Mary’s first attempt to write a book failed. Learning to finish has been one of her greatest achievements and one of the most important of her writing career.

Short Publishing:

Mary’s official writing career started in 2020 when her poem ‘Sit’ was included in the Best of Kindness anthology, after entering the 2020 ‘Best Of Kindness’ competition, held by the Origami Poetry Project. Poetry has continued to be an important part of Mary’s writing and personal life ever since that first yes. You can find her complete Author’s Portfolio HERE.

In 2021 Mary chose to pursue self-publishing for her future poetry collections.

Self Publishing:

Mary enjoys the creative freedom self-publishing has brought to her career and endeavours to keep the personal flair as well as pursue professionality with all her published works.

Poetry is again where it all started and Mary’s first short poetry collection The Branch That I Am was released in November of 2021. Since then Mary has released Words of Weight (2022), and Branches in Bloom (2023) under the poetry Genre, with more collections planned for the future.

Mary’s first Christian Fiction title Our Road to Trust: Interlocking Short Stories of Faith was released on January 15th, 2024. She had many more books in this genre planned for the future, as well as titles in the Fantasy Genre.