Maria S. Judge
Site #16
12 Fairfield Street
Spoken word
Saturday 3:30 pm, Sunday 3 pm

Biography
Medford resident Maria Judge is a writer, storyteller and educator whose work has been covered by Oprah Magazine, The Boston Globe and in Alexandra Johnson’s Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal. She is a contributing writer to The Somerville News and has been published in Dan Wakefield's The Story of Your Life, The Boston Irish Reporter, Peace Corps Online, The Merton Seasonal, MIT Tech Talk, and in A Cup of Comfort for Breast Cancer Survivors. She has been interviewed about her work by New England Cable News, the WB Network and Fox News.

Maria has worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, The OCI Healing Research Foundation and Physicians for Human Rights. She holds degrees from Holy Cross College and Northeastern University, and also studied at St. Louis University in Madrid, Spain. An experienced public speaker and performer who has served as Vice President for Toastmasters at MIT, she also has spoken and performed readings in libraries, schools, cruise ships, community art programs, churches, and pubs.

Artist Statement
I was 8 years old when I entered the Peace Corps. It wasn’t that they were desperate for volunteers, nor was I so talented an adolescent that all reasonable age and experience requirements were waived for me. Instead, I came as part of a package deal that included my father, my mother, my brothers and my sisters. Dad legitimately volunteered. The rest of us came along … involuntarily.

The Toughest Job I Never Held: Tales from a Peace Corps Childhood tells the story of my family’s experiences in the Peace Corps in Chile from 1962 to 1965.