Josephine Ensign is a professor of nursing at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing where she teaches health policy, public health, and health humanities. She is an alumna of Hedgebrook, Centrum, The Community of Writers, Mesa Refuge, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Born in Richmond, Virginia.

Fox Island resident, Michele Torrey, has published twelve books, many of which are geared for young adults.  Perhaps best known for her science detective series, Michele writes compelling, historical fiction as well. Michele will present at the Whidbey Writers Conference April 1-3. www.micheletorrey.com

D.L. Fowler, like many of us, came to writing in a round-about fashion. He graduated from the University of Southern California, and served three years in the air force during Vietnam during which time he trained as a Bulgarian linguist. After picking up an MBA, he became a CPA for two decades, until a cancer scare which steered him to devote his full attention to writing, something he’d wanted to do since high school. Fowler’s books include Lincoln Raw, The Turn, Ripples, and Bittersweet. Fowler is the founder of the Gig Harbor Literary Society which you can read more about in our “Resources” section. Next to writing, his next favorite passion, other than family, is creating tasty dishes in his Gig Harbor kitchen.

Julie L. Brown is the author of the alternative-history novel, NO ONE WILL SAVE US and the creator, under the pen name J. L. Brown, of the Jade Harrington series, political thrillers which include the novels, DON’T SPEAK, RULE OF LAW, and THE DIVIDE, and the short story, Few Are Chosen. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writers of Color, Sisters in Crime, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Julie earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast program at the University of Southern Maine. She resides with her family in the Pacific Northwest, where she is working on her next novel.

Marcia Bradley, a native of Chicago, earned BA from Antioch in Los Angeles, then her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College in New York where she was mentored by recent Pen/Faulkner finalist, Carolyn Ferrell, and with the National Book Critics Circle Award and Pen/Faulkner recipient Joan Silber. She received a Bronx Council on the Arts/New York City BRIO Award for Fiction, was a Pushcart nominee in 2022, and her writing has appeared in The Chicago Review of Books, The Capital Gazette, and many other publications. She has received scholarships to Ragdale, Community of Writers, and Eckerd College Writers’ residencies. Marcia teaches adult writers at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Her debut novel, The Home for Wayward Girls, a deep dive into the Troubled Teen Industry, was published by HarperCollins in 2023 and was on “Goodreads 105 of the buzziest novels of 2023 list.” https://marciabradley.com/

Debra Gwartney, who teaches in the Pacific University MFA program, has published three award winning books: Live Through This, I Am a Stranger Here Myself, and Home Ground, as well as stories and essays in Granta, Tin House, Kenyon Review, Creative Nonfiction, Salon, and the New York Times “Modern Love” column. Her recently published essay, “Suffer Me to Pass,” published in VQR, was awarded a Pushcart Prize. Dwartney, who lives in Western Oregon, is the 2018 winner of the Real Simple essay contest; a contributing editor at Poets and Writers magazine, and in 2015 won the Crab Orchard Review prize for non-fiction. http://www.debragwartney.com. First published July 2021

Deb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over seventeen books for adults and young adults, including HONEY, BABY, SWEETHEART, a finalist for the National Book Award; A HEART IN A BODY IN THE WORLD, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; and GIRL, UNFRAMED, which received seven starred reviews. Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other awards and honors, and she was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. First published Nov. 2021

Clyde Ford is a multi-talented man with such broad skills and experiences that we might call him an old fashioned "Renaissance man.” In 2006, Ford received the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award in African American fiction, in 2019, he was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award in African American nonfiction, in 2021 he won the Nautilus Book Award in Social Justice, and was named a finalist for the Goddard-Russo Prize in Social Justice, and King County Library System honored him for four years as a "Literary Lion." First published July, 2022

Lauren Kessler is an award-winning author, (semi) fearless immersion reporter and narrative nonfiction writer who combines lively storytelling with deep research to explore everything from the hidden world of a maximum security prison (A Grip of Time: When Prison is Your Life) to the seemingly romantic but oh-so-gritty world of ballet (Raising the Barre: Big Dreams, False Starts and My Midlife Quest to Dance The Nutcracker) to the surprisingly vibrant world of those with Alzheimer's (Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's). Her books have been Washington Post and Los Angeles Times bestsellers, Wall Street Journal "best" selections, Pacific Northwest Book Award winners, and Oregon Book Award winners. She is a national speaker and workshop leader who has twice been a guest on the late/great David Letterman Show. She teaches storytelling for social change at the University of Washington and for the Forum of Journalism and Media in Vienna. Born in New York state, Kessler received her B.S.J., from Northwestern University, MS, University of Oregon, and Ph.D., University of Washington, 1980. (www.laurenkessler.com). First Published Mar. 2021

Tara Conklin is a writer and former lawyer who worked for an international human rights organization and at corporate law firms in London and New York. She was born in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and grew up in Stockbridge. Massachusetts. She holds a BA in history from Yale University, a JD from NYU School of Law and a Master of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Tara now lives in Seattle with her family where she writes, teaches and works with private clients on manuscript development. She is also a sought-after speaker on a wide range of topics, including a writer's life, work-life balance and mid-career pivots. For more information, click here. Her novel, The Last Romantics (William Morrow), published in February 2019, was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Barnes & Noble Book Club Pick, Indie Next Pick, and was selected by Jenna Bush Hager as the inaugural read for The Today Show Book Club. Her whose first novel, The House Girl, (William Morrow) was a New York Times bestseller, #1 Indie Next pick, Target book club pick and has been translated into 8 languages.

Alice K. Boatwright is the author of the Ellie Kent mysteries, which debuted with Under an English Heaven, winner of the 2016 Mystery and Mayhem Grand Prize. The series continued with What Child Is This? and the third book, Life Ever After, will be forthcoming soon. She is also the author of award-winning literary fiction: Collateral Damage; Sea, Sky, Islands; and dozens of published short stories. As a mystery writer, Alice sees her Ellie Kent mysteries as “traditional” mysteries inspired by the Golden Age writers, such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Josephine Tey, but with contemporary influences, such as P.D. James. She also loves M.C. Beaton, who always makes her laugh.

Will you please describe your writer’s path–from when you first realized you wanted to be a writer?
Every time I’m asked to write a biography it comes out differently, but this is what the question brings to mind today. I grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, but I was never a New Englander. Like many people drawn to New Haven because of Yale, my parents were from far different parts of the country. The people we knew were from very eclectic backgrounds and included many multi-generation households where the parents and/or grandparents had fled from Europe because of World War II. My parents were both classical musicians with very busy careers, and our house was full of music and musicians who played everything from lutes to sitars. It was the 1950s–60s, but this was not the world of Leave It to Beaver.

Interview with Susan Rich

Susan Rich explored the world before settling down to poetry. With a degree in International affairs from Harvard, Susan worked with Amnesty International, the Peace Corps, and as a human rights trainer in Gaza and the West Bank. She has written three poetry books, including her recent, The Alchemists Kitchen. With poems published in magazines from the Christian Science Monitor to the Alaska Quarterly, she has been awarded the Times Literary Supplement Award, a residency at Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, an Artist Trust Fellowship, and a Seattle City Artist Project Award, as well as participation in the Cuirt Literary Festival in Galway, Ireland. For a more complete view of Susan's accomplishments, www.susanrich.net.

First Published April, 2011

Like so many writers, your passion for writing was once almost crushed. After a decade of world travel and human rights work, you returned to writing. What advice would you give to a person who once loved to write, but put it aside because they were discouraged?

Before becoming a successful thriller author, Boyd Morrison has had an interesting and varied career, with success in diverse venues. He worked in the aeronautical field with NASA. During those years he got to play with big toys like the Space Shuttle and Space Station mock ups, the robot arm and the Vomit Comet. Then he completed a PhD in industrial engineering. While working on his dissertation, he drafted his first novel. But before he could pursue his dream of becoming a published author, as primary breadwinner he worked while his wife went through medical school, designing at RCA and earning 16 U.S. patents during his time there. A move to Seattle for his wife’s medical residency gave him a chance to “test” games for Microsoft’s Xbox--a young boy’s dream job. Once his wife took over as key breadwinner, he turned to writing novels full time, with a little acting on the side in films and plays. He is the author of multiple best-selling thrillers, with four books in the Tyler Locke series along with several standalone thrillers. His book the Ark has been translated into 22 languages. Most recently, he has worked with blockbuster author Clive Cussler on the Oregon Files series.

Published May, June 2017

Ann Hedreen is a Seattle native, a graduate of Wellesley College and Goddard College’s Masters of Fine Arts program in creative writing. Ann’s achievements include: her memoir, Her Beautiful Brain, which won a 2016 Next Generation Indie book award; her blog, The Restless Nest, which received a 2016 honorable mention from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists; her article in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine “Alzheimer’s: Laughter and Forgetting,” which was awarded Society of Professional Journalists’ First Place/Pacific Northwest for Science & Health reporting, 2012; the film, “Quick Brown Fox: an Alzheimer’s Story”, which earned the Women in Film’s Nell Shipman award for Best Documentary. She and her husband Rustin Thompson own White Noise Productions which produces films and feature documentaries, including their newest film, Zona Intangible. A Hedgebrook alumna, she tutors for Horn of Africa Services and teaches memoir writing at Seattle Central College and Hugo House.

Published March, 2017

How did you begin writing screenplays? Is writing a “screenplay” and a “script” the same thing? Did you start with short stories?

Yes, writing a script and screenplay are pretty much interchangeable. I started “telling stories” as long as I can remember. I remember telling mom she HAD TO teach me how to use the typewriter so I could write my stories faster. Her response was, “You’re going to have to learn how to read first.”

Published January/February 2017

For those new to The Writers Connection, our interviews are meant to educate writers and inform readers. I am always so grateful for the time and effort writers give to answering our questions and the knowledge and wisdom they share. That definitely applies to the thoughtful, heartfelt responses from Kelli Russell Agodon, an award-winning poet, writer, editor, and essayist, formerly from Kingston. Her most recent books are a third collection of poems, Hourglass Museum, a Finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and short-listed for the Julie Suk Poetry Prize honoring the best book of poems published by a small press, as well as The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice , which she coauthored with Martha Silano.

Published May, June 2016

The New York Times best-selling author Ryan Boudinot wrote Blueprints of the Afterlife which was a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award, and his other works, Misconception and The Littlest Hitler, received high acclaim. At the time of this interview (2014) he taught both at Goddard and at Richard Hugo House, where he served as writer-in–residence. Boudinot spearheads the campaign to designate Seattle as a UNESCO City of Literature.

Published September, 2014

Susan Wiggs, author of more than thirty books, hardly needs an introduction to romance readers. Besides being a #1 New York Times Best Seller, she received the Romance Writers of America RITA Award on multiple occasions as well as the Holt Medallion, the Colorado Award of Excellence, and the Peninsula Romance Writers of America Blue Boa Award. Romantic

Times has named her a “Career Achievement Award winner. Published in many languages, she has a beloved readership with Facebook 47,000 “likes”, and her books continually grace many "Best of" lists.

2010 Interview with co-founder of Wales Literary Agency

Elizabeth, as co-founder of the Wales Literary Agency in Seattle, what do you do?

I am a literary agent and represent authors and their book proposals and manuscripts to the publishing industry. That is to say, I find publishing homes for new authors. I may find publishing homes for established authors, also. Delete [for the second and third printing.] As the liaison between authors and their publishers delete [the publishing company and the author], I fly to New York around four times per year.