Marlene Roberts, relaxing on a boardwalk that leads to
the Intracoastal Waterway, teaches writing workshops at the
Highland Beach Library. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Marlene Roberts reinvents herself every 10 years.
It is, she quips, not only necessary but also invigorating. The Highland Beach resident has gone through many metamorphoses: orphan, modern dancer, high-powered corporate executive with an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University (she graduated at the top of her class) and Florida Atlantic University professor.
Her ever-changing life has taken her to some exotic locales, including Malaysia, where she lived for 18 months, and Brazil, which she called home for three years.
The mother of three, who has a master’s degree in English, is just as passionate about her latest incarnation: a writer who teaches writing workshops at the Highland Beach Library.
The workshops offer tips on writing, marketing and everything in between (another eight-session series begins at 5 p.m. Feb. 12 and costs $250).
“I truly believe writing is something that changes people’s lives and allows them to leave a legacy,” says Roberts, whose fiction and memoirs have been published in The Gettysburg Review, American Airline’s flight magazine, Hadassah magazine and Lilith.
“Publishing has filled a significant hole in my heart. I reread the first memoirs I published 25 years ago and they still resonate with me. I was able to pay tribute to the people I loved and who loved me. Also, to a world that no longer exists.”
Roberts, 70, began her writing career at the Jewish Journal while in her early 50s, after happily tossing aside the high-profile corporate world and its rigid rules. Although she’s passionate about her new career, she’s still absorbing the impact of the technological advances.
“The marketing I used in 1980s is out the window, long stories are out … bookstores are out. For the first time, I am allowing a story of mine to be published on the Internet (jewishfiction.com).
“I am adapting. I have to,” says Roberts, who was raised by her maternal grandparents after her parents died (her father died two days before she was born; her mother died 14 months later.)
When she’s not writing, she enjoys yoga, reading, taking walks and spending time with her husband, George Banet, who survived the Holocaust in France (they are both dual French/American nationals).
— Linda Haase
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. Belle Harbor, which has just been washed away by Hurricane Sandy.
It was much like Highland Beach in that it was three blocks wide and had the Atlantic Ocean on one side, Jamaica Bay on the other. Only it was filled with small, one-family homes and everyone knew each other.
Q. What are some highlights of your life?
A. After I divorced, I asked myself, ‘What are the least likely things Marlene Roberts would do?’ So I went white-water rafting in Colorado, rode a horse (petrified all the time) through the Badlands of Utah, trekked across the Serengeti and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (really a schlep, not a climb).
Q. Why did you choose to live in Highland Beach?
A. I didn’t. I chose George Banet and he came with an apartment in Highland Beach.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?
A. Being able to take a boardwalk path that leads to the Intracoastal. I sit on the dock where I can watch the birds and boats and unexpected wildlife go by.
Q. What’s the most important lesson you teach your students?
A. Samuel Beckett’s quote, ‘Try again, fail again, fail better.’ That they shouldn’t always be judging themselves. They should just write honestly and from the heart. Another lesson is that a person has to be willing to be bad, if they want to be good. If you have a good tennis serve and want a better serve, during the transition, things will go downhill for a while.
Q. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your writing students?
A. FAU hired a group of journalists for a new freelance writing program. We all could write, but some, like me, couldn’t teach. It’s a different skill. When I taught at FAU’s Continuing Ed, with adults who wanted to learn and not get a grade, I had great success. Each term, several got jobs on local newspapers and others published. I discovered what I do best is motivate people to learn. For beginners I use techniques that are fun and not threatening to get them started. For writers further along I recommend books or articles to read and then discuss.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. None. I live in silence. Thanksgiving, when I visited my granddaughters in Chicago, I did bring a DVD of The Funk Brothers, Motown’s backup band. They played on more records that sold over a million copies than Elvis, the Stones and the Beatles combined [according to a documentary about these legendary session musicians]. I taught my granddaughters the arm movements the women made and to sing backup. We got quite good on Heat Wave.
Q. What do people not know about you as a writer that you wish they did?
A. Three things I can think of: 1. If I can publish, probably any motivated person can. I was really bad when I started. 2. English isn’t my first language. 3. I got an MBA to become a high-powered corporate executive and in my early 50s threw it away to become a cub reporter.
Q. Are your writing classes always the same?
A. This year I’ve changed the time format of the Writers Workshop so more people can attend. The first session began in January. Another session starts at 5 p.m. Feb. 12. You can take the eight session series or you can sit in on individual classes.
Q. Who were your role models?
A. My maternal grandfather, who raised me. He was a union organizer, writer, a political figure and a staunch socialist. He taught me morality and duty and accepted me for who I was, even when I acted like an American capitalist.
My brother Richard was my other role model. He was incredibly self-sufficient. At a young age he chose what he wanted to achieve and went on to achieve it. He showed me that everyone doesn’t have to go the same way.
Although inside we were very much alike, our actions manifested themselves quite differently.
Like we were both in Kenya/Tanzania at the same time. I hiked and slept in a tent, Richard stayed at Treetops and traveled in a jeep that carried martinis. Richard lived on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park. I lived in a loft on 29th Street in a renovated factory. Ú
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