Marissa Mazek received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Jackson Center for Creative Writing at Hollins University, where she was a Teaching Fellow, in 2015. She graduated magna cum laude from Barnard in 2010, with a degree in English and a concentration in Creative Writing.

Before graduate school, Mazek was Chief of Staff and an Adult Basic Education tutor at Literacy Partners, an adult literacy nonprofit in New York City. Today, she lives in Virginia and works for the Roanoke Public Libraries coordinating day-to-day operations of Star City Reads, a Campaign for Grade-Level Reading initiative. In 2021, she joined the leadership team of Standing for Equity in the Roanoke Valley. She is currently working on a novel set on Long Island.