In 2014, she taught writers' workshops in Bakken oil field communities most affected by hydraulic fracking,[2] where "many people ... are despairing – feeling that they have been declared an energy sacrifice zone.
[4] Marquart grew up on a farm originally purchased by her great-grandfather in the small town of Napoleon, North Dakota.
[5] Marquart loathed the place, the hard physical labor, and the limited prospects for women, and was eager to leave.
[6] At the end of the decade she studied at Moorhead State University, Minnesota, graduating with a Master of Liberal Arts in 1990.
She has said: There are some good things about the oil boom, but we must realize that many people in the state are despairing – feeling that they have been declared an energy sacrifice zone and the rest of the country doesn't care what their land and water will be like.