In September of 2001, she won first prize in the Freedom Festival Poetry Contest, with her poem about Harriet Tubman , entitled, Freedom's Rail.
Marty Gervais, publisher of Black Moss Press, noticed her success and began a mentoring program that October. Since she had been in a convent for eight years
in the sixties, Gervais
asked her to write about her experiences during those years.
From this came her first book of narrative poetry, The Red Dress,
Black Moss Press, 2003. The Red Dress received national attention
through an interview on Tapestry, CBC radio, with host, Mary Hynes.
Another life-experience which she was encouraged to write about was growing
up in a "cemetery house," located at the edge of a cemetery
in St. Thomas, Ontario, where her father, Patrick, was grave-digger and
caretaker. This resulted in Touch the Dead, Black Moss Press, 2006.
Touch the Dead was short-listed for the Acorn-Plantos Award, 2007.
Mulhern was asked by Marty Gervais to research and write about the Father
Charles Sylvester priest sexual-abuse case which was successfully prosecuted
by crown attorney, Paul Bailey at the Chatham Court House.
The book, When Angels Weep, was launched April 8, 2008 at the University
of Windsor, with over four hundred people in attendance.
When Angels Weep was short-listed for the Acorn-Plantos Award,
2009.
Mary Ann Mulhern's latest book is: Sleeping with Satan, Salem Witch-hunt,
1692.
Sleeping with Satan was launched November 4, 2010.