Mary Claire Kendall is a Washington-based writer and producer.

A new and improved edition of her book, Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends, was published in February 2024. “Oasis II” featuring, six more legends of Hollywood, will be published in July 2024.

Her book about Ernest Hemingway, viewed through the prism of faith, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield Christmas 2024.

And, she has written the never-before-told story of Betty Hutton’s life.

In between her own writing, she edited Holy Hour with Mother Angelica (2021), A Crisis in Culture by Fr. George W. Rutler (2020), and transformed William ‘Bill’ Walton: A Charmed Life (2013) about a Kennedy confidante who changed the face of Washington.

Mary Claire is a seasoned commentary and feature writer, television and radio personality and public speaker. She writes a regular bi-monthly column for Aleteia.

A graduate of Wellesley College, Mary Claire served as a political appointee in the Administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, at the Departments of Education (1987-’88) and Health and Human Services (1989-’93) respectively, as a speechwriter, policy analyst, and representative spearheading various initiatives.

In 1993, as she worked to establish herself as an author, she began focusing on film. In 1995, a media pro asked her out of the blue, “Have you ever considered writing fiction?” By the fall of 1997, she wrote a spec script for an ABC TV show, and was asked to sign a release. After the show was cancelled, turning lemons into lemonade, she used the script as the basis for her first screenplay, The Rose and the Thorns, which she began writing on weekends at the desk of her then boss, Paul Lee, who had recently arrived in the states to helm BBC America and would go on to helm ABC Entertainment (2010-2016).