MaryElise.com Magazine :: Editorial Team

ME Columnists: August 2007

Andria Cole
Christine Hardenberger
Jennifer Brown Banks

To view all of the MaryElise Columnists, visit our Editorial Team Archive.

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Andria Cole Articles:
. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: This Too Shall Pass

Andria Nacina Cole was raised in a house full of women and learned everything she knows about storytelling from their mouths. Degrees in Creative Writing from the Universities of Morgan State and Johns Hopkins taught her to tame that homemade style, though she still calls on it every writing moment.

She is the 2006 recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s top grant prize for fiction, and has published work in Sensations Magazine, Urbanite, Njozi Magazine, Penn Union and Shug among others. She has written a collection of poetry, Anthem: For Colored Women Only, and is working tirelessly to complete a short-story collection tentatively titled Clean Piles of Daughter. Andria is the founder of Flanked, a women’s writers collective that believes in the genius, creativity, and criticism of unrecognized writers.

She was drawn to MaryElise.com as soon as she read the Mission Statement. She knew, before reaching the statement’s end, that she wanted…needed to write for ME. Andria is most inspired by hard work—she believes with it, anything can be accomplished.

A message to the Women of today:
“She is a friend of mine. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.” Toni Morrison

Columnist Christine Hardenberger MaryElise

Christine Hardenberger Articles:
. Becoming June

Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Women’s Studies from the University of Richmond. She has spent the past fifteen years in the mortgage banking industry and is currently a successful loan officer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Never able to leave her literary and feminist past behind, Christine has recently begun writing again and hopes to eventually transition to a full-time writing career.

Christine brings to ME a sense of what it is like to be a feminist in the real world. Her years in corporate America have shown her even more clearly how deeply entrenched society’s narrow view of women really is. Moreover, she has seen how women can often be their own worst enemy. Inspired by the task of raising two daughters and a son, Christine strives to show them – and others around them – that both women and men can truly be anything they want to be. If we could all work together and support one another’s dreams and goals without prejudice, anything is truly possible.

A message to the Women of today:
There is a reason the flight attendant instructs you to put your oxygen mask on before tending to others; you can’t help anyone until you’ve taken care of yourself.

Columnist Jennifer Brown Banks MaryElise

Jennifer Brown Banks Articles:
. 12 Ways to Date Smarter, Not Harder
. 10 Websites Every Woman Should Know

Jennifer Brown Banks is a veteran freelance writer, online columnist, and popular feature writer. She is also a contributing author to the best-selling series by Simon and Schuster, Chocolate for a Woman's Heart. She operates a home-based writing and consulting business in Chicago. Banks holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management, and in her "former life", was a banker for 14 years.

Since 1991, her words of empowerment and enlightenment have been embraced by audiences worldwide in regional and national publications, online and print. She has also been featured on WVON radio's relationship forum and the Dr. Scott and Wendy Show.

Jennifer brings a diverse and dynamic background to MaryElise, and the desire to help women love better, live better, and make better choices. She believes that fulfillment in all areas of life is first achieved through self-appreciation and personal fulfillment. Jennifer is inspired by love, nature, spirituality, and the belief that time, and how we spend it, is a beautiful gift that deserves reverence.

A message to the Women of today:
You deserve to be cherished. But first you must honor and empower yourself!