Mary Caroline Richards (July 13, 1916, Weiser, Idaho – September 10, 1999, Kimberton, Pennsylvania) was an American poet, potter, and writer best known for her book Centering: in Pottery, Poetry and the Person. Educated at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, and at the University of California at Berkeley, she taught English at the Central Washington College of Education and the University of Chicago, but in 1945 became a faculty member of the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina where she continued to teach until the end of the summer session in 1951.

Her teaching experience and growth as an artist while at Black Mountain College prepared the foundation for most of her work in life, both as an educator and creator. Later in life, she discovered the work of Rudolf Steiner and lived the last part of her life at a Camphill Village in Kimberton, PA. In 1985, while living at the Kimberton Camphill Village she began teaching workshops with Matthew Fox at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, CA during the winter months. Mary Caroline Richards died in 1999 in Kimberton, PA.

M.C. Richards was born in Weiser, Idaho on July 13, 1916. As an infant her family moved to Portland, Oregon where she spent the early part of her life. In 1935 she attended high school at the Oregon Episcopal School (then called St. Helen's Hall Junior College).

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Reed College in Portland, in Literature and Languages. She earned a MA degree in 1939 in English and a PhD in 1942 in English and linguistics, both degrees were from University of California, Berkeley.

In 1943 she taught English at the Central Washington College of Education in Ellensburg, Washington and married Vernon Young (marriage later dissolved). From there she taught briefly at the University of California at Berkeley and at the University of Chicago, but became disillusioned with the traditional academic environment. While teaching at the University of Chicago, she met the social scientist Albert William Levi Jr., and they were married in 1945 (their marriage was dissolved while she was teaching at Black Mountain College).

In 1945 Richards joined the faculty of the English Department at Black Mountain College, where she taught writing and literature, and where she served as Faculty Chair from 1949 to 1951.

At Black Mountain College, M.C. Richards was one of the most popular teachers with the students. She grouped her courses under the general heading of "Reading and Writing" while including important elements such as literary criticism, creative writing, and dramatic literature. It was here that she began to make the transition from the academic career for which she had been trained and moved into taking a more creative approach in her teaching methods.

Here began many of the associations which connect her to the music and art worlds, through friendships with David Tudor, Lou Harrison and John Cage in music, Merce Cunningham and Remy Charlip in dance, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan (loosely known as the "Black Mountain Poets") in literature, and Lyle Bongé and Joe Fiore in the visual arts. Her involvement with theater began at Black Mountain College with her translation of plays by Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie.