Margaret Irby brings more than thirty years' involvement in international culture, the arts and teaching to her students of creative writing. She loves working with groups comprising participants of many different nationalities and helping individuals follow their own unique paths. Her proudest accomplishments are the publication of her students’ works and the enrichment of their lives.
The oldest child of prominent arts patrons in Jackson Mississippi, her family knew Eudora Welty, Lydie Henley and Beth Henley, among other writers and artists. Her mother wrote her thesis on Charles Eames, who became a friend. Her father owned an international electrical construction business. The family lived in Switzerland during Margaret's early childhood. Her parents provided her with an early exposure to the arts and instilled in her a love of world travel.
Margaret received a BA from the University of South Carolina, studied a semester at L’Université Laval in Quebec, the University of Colorado, and went around the world on World Campus Afloat. She studied acting in New York and London, fiction at The Writer’s Voice, Columbia University and NYU, and playwrighting in New York with Paul Selig. She received her MA in French Literature from NYU in Paris, where she lived and taught improvisation and writing workshops. Participants included both novice and professional writers from France, England, Holland, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United States.
In addition to writing, Margaret has taught French, English as a foreign language, public speaking and improvisation. She has acted in Off–Broadway plays, dances jazz ballet, loves music, cooking, entertaining and decorating.
