Ana McCracken
What’s your genre?
Creative nonfiction
Are you published?
Anthologies, literary reviews, and magazines.
What inspired you to become a writer?
Perhaps the impetus to become a writer began when my mother taught me to write thank you notes? Maybe it was the 20-years of writing letters to my pen-pal, Lisa? Or writing soul-searching stories in my English classes, and my stint as an editor for The Opinion, the Peoria High School newspaper? Much later during the two years that I searched for my birthmother, I wrote annual holiday missives that caused my friends to encouraged me to write my memoir. The inspiration to become a writer is a culmination of life events.
What author do you admire and how have they inspired you?
Dani Shapiro! All of her memoirs in my possession are dog-eared and the pages are filled with marginalia. I have learned dialog, scene-setting and exposition from Dani. She is my go-to author when I need inspiration.
Name three of your favorite books and their authors
Let’s Take the Long Walk Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Heating and Cooling 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly
Slow Motion, Devotion, Still Writing, Hourglass, and Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
What’s one thing readers should know about you?
In February 2022 anticipating the death of HRH Queen Elizabeth, I wrote her a letter of condolence on Smythson stationery, and sent her a photograph taken at Hewlett-Packard of HRH and Dave Packard, and Prince Philip and my husband, Ed. (Circa 1983.) Her Lady in Waiting read it to her, and they wrote me back. It is one of my greatest pride and joys!
What one piece of advice would you give a budding writer?
Just one? When you are sitting in a workshop group and fellow writers are giving you feedback, don’t justify what you’ve done and written and banter back and forth. People have taken the time to read your writing, and it’s annoying. Just LISTEN! You don’t have to take their advice, but often times it might be good advice. And… edit, edit, edit! Your first draft isn’t even close to the draft you send off to an agent.
Author Bio
Ana’s stories have appeared in the California Writers Club’s Literary Review, the anthologies Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God—51 Women Reveal the Power of Positive Female Connection, and Chicken Soup for the Soul—The Joy of Adoption, and poetry at Telepoem Booth®Iowa. At one time Ana was a columnist and editor for Maui Vision Magazine, and her essays and articles have appeared in various publications around the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, she is the founder of the Ames Writers Collective based in Ames, Iowa, and she serves on the Willa Cather Foundation Board of Governors, and served as a board of director for Litquake in San Francisco.
