Poet, playwright, novelist, Marie has authored over thirty books under the name Marie Chapian. The subjects include psychology, health, fitness, celebrity biography and books of Christian inspiration.

As an artist, Marie has shown her paintings in galleries in southern California and New York. She both wrote and illustrated the children’s book series, "The Adventures of Alula-Belle." Her books have been translated into fifteen languages, including Chinese and Arabic. Her poetry and stories have appeared in quarterlies and periodicals in English and Spanish, including The Spoon River Poetry Review, New Letters, Mindscapes, Atlanta Review, The Onset Review, California Poetry Quarterly, The Seventh Muse, Aurora, Rattle, Windhover, Poetry Conspiracy, Tidepools, The Texas Writers Newsletter, Concho River Review, AWP Writer's Chronicle and Poetry International. She is widely published in Christian publications.

She was recipient of two playwriting grants from the Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1997 and other awards and grants include the Gold Medallion Award of Excellence, the Cornerstone Book of the Year Award, the Chicago Book of the Year, a Gold Book Award from EPCA, a National Writers Union award, New Letters Award in poetry, a Spoon River Anthology and quarterly honorable mention, and an AAUW Achievement grant. She has received artist's residency grants from the Vermont Studio Center and the Milton Center.

She has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College and teaches creative writing and poetry at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, California, in private workshops and in conferences and university writing conferences around the country. She also has a PhD in psychological counseling and founded the Christian Center for Counseling and Fitness in San Diego.

A book reviewer for the San Diego Union Tribune, she is an associate editor for the literary quarterly, Hungry Mountain. She is publisher and editor-in-chief of the online poetry journal, ROADSPOETRY.com.

Marie won the San Diego Book Award for her then unpublished novel, I LOVE YOU LIKE A TOMATO in May 2001, and that same month her book of poems, SLOW DANCE ON STILTS, was published by La Jolla Poets Press which won an Award of Excellence from the SDBAA in May 2002.

Published under the name Marie Giordano, Marie's novel, I LOVE YOU LIKE A TOMATO, was published in hard cover in 2003 by Forge Books and is now out in mass market paperback. I LOVE YOU LIKE A TOMATO is the first book of a trilogy about growing up in America as an Italian immigrant. The San Diego Book Awards awarded I LOVE YOU LIKE A TOMATO first place in fiction category in 2004.

She is featured in the new 2005 Poets Market.