Author: Nicole Phelon

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Author

Patricia Kimle

What’s your genre?
Historical fiction

Are you published?
Self published

What inspired you to become a writer?
Long ago, we followed the Underground Railroad trail from Nebraska City, NE through western Iowa to West Des Moines and Grinnell as a short family vacation when our children were grade school age. My husband developed a story line based on the history, but a job change meant the project fell by the wayside. When said children had all left me with an empty nest, I decided to pick up the story. We say now that I was research and writing and my husband “story consultant.” I had always wanted to try writing fiction and it was an easier start since the basic idea was ready for me to take on.

What author do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
I grew up not far from the home of Willa Cather in south central Nebraska. I’ve read O Pioneers! and My Ántonia many times from high school to now. In grade school, I loved and read Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child. I’ve always loved prairie stories. Actually any historical fiction with a good heroine will do.

Name three of your favorite books and their authors
My favorites are always changing. I read a lot of books about creativity and recently loved Adorning the Dark, by Andrew Peterson. He is a singer/songwriter and story teller. I’ve loved every Charles Martin book I’ve read. And Susan May Warren is an incredible writer, mentor and businesswoman.

What’s one thing readers should know about you?
I have been an artist for 30 years. As a freelance designer, I published how-to articles and books in the craft industry before craft publishing went the way of the dodo. Next I had a wholesale jewelry business selling silver and clay jewelry until I retired the business during covid. For the last 5 years, I have been painting in oils. I have 5 paintings that were inspired by scenes from my book, The Only Free Road: An Underground Railroad Saga Unveiled, including the cover art.

What one piece of advice would you give a budding writer?
Research can draw you down lots of rabbit holes, and if you are inclined, like me, to keep digging, remember to ask yourself occasionally if you’re coming up with details that actually contribute to the story or take your reader into the weeds. Sometimes its better to make something up and keep moving on.

Author bio
Patricia Kimle is an artist and lover of history. After 30 years in the craft and jewelry industry, she has turned her attention to painting and writing. Historical fiction is her favorite genre to read, so it was fun to make up a story with her husband and work together. Working on The Only Free Road, Patricia indulged her love of research in order to try to get lots of details to enrich the story.

She and Kevin have three grown children and live in Ames, Iowa. Visit Patricia here.

On Sunday, September 24th, Patricia will be a featured author at the 2nd Annual Ames Writers Collective Swift Literary Festival to be held during the Annual Octagon Art Festival. Check our calendar for details.

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Author

Joe Geha

What’s your genre?
Memoir, fiction and drama

Are you published?
Traditional publisher

What inspired you to become a writer?
A teacher in college recognized something in me and encouraged it. That “something” I consider to be a gift as well as an obligation.

What author do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
I consider Richard Yates a “writers’ writer,” that is, someone a beginner can learn from. Yates is known for the deceptively simple directness of his prose style, the precision of his descriptions, the way he can pierce the reader with a character’s slightest gesture.

Name three of your favorite books and their authors
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

What’s one thing readers should know about you?
I use poker to inform my work as an artist. In poker it’s particularly evident that nothing risked equals nothing gained. Therefore, a regular dose of low stakes poker is enough for me to keep in mind the need I have to continue taking artistic risks.

What one piece of advice would you give to a budding writer?
Read, and read, and read. Beyond reading, I would encourage the fledgling writer to approach their work as a child approaches a sandbox—ready to play. For the moment, pay no attention to that killjoy grownup, your internal editor. Instead build and tear down and see what turns up. You’ll need that editor, but not till later, while the child’s enjoying a well-earned nap.

And read.

Author bio
Joe Geha, Professor Emeritus at Iowa State University, is also the author of Through and Through: Toledo Stories, and Lebanese Blonde. His poems, plays, essays and short stories have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies. His work was granted an NEA award, Pushcart Prize, and the Arab American Book Award. Read about Joe’s lastest book, Kitchen Arabic How My Family Came to America and the Recipes We Brought With Us, here.

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Author

Tom Montgomery Fate

What’s your genre?
Creative nonfiction / memoir / essays

Are you published?
Traditional Publisher

What inspired you to become a writer?
My 7th grade English teacher, Miss Herman, asked us to write about “a walk in the woods” we had taken, and then read/record (interpret) it on a cassette recorder. Then we listened to the reading together, while looking at the print, and discussed it. It blew my 13 year old mind.

What author do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
I read ten of Scott Russell Sanders books while in a writing residency, and learned that my seemingly boring, humdrum life was interesting enough to write about. It was not about WHAT I saw but HOW I saw.

Name three of your favorite books and their authors
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Dakota by Kathleen Norris

What’s one thing readers should know about you?
Beauty is defined by flaw not perfection. It is uniqueness and difference that defines beauty, not societal expectation.

What one piece of advice would you give to a budding writer?
There are two things you need to be a writer: passion and patience. These two words share the same Latin root—pati—which means “to suffer.”

Author bio
Tom Montgomery Fate is a professor emeritus at College DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where he taught creative writing and literature courses for more than 30 years. He is the author of six books of creative nonfiction, including The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries, a travel memoir (Ice Cube Press, 2022), Cabin Fever, a nature memoir (Beacon Press), and Steady and Trembling, a spiritual memoir (Chalice Press). A regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune, his essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Orion, The Iowa Review, Christian Century, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, and many others. Dozens of his essays have also aired on NPR, PRI and Chicago Public Radio. Visit Tom here.

On September 27, Tom will teach a class titled, Writing A Life Into Memoir at the Ames Public Library from 6:30 to 8 PM. Check our calendar for further details.

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In The Media

Founder Featured in Livability Ames “Cost of Living Diaries”

The Ames Writers Collective is proud to have founder, Ana McCracken featured in “Cost of Living Diaries” in the current issue of Livability Ames.

 

 

Click here to view the entire story and issue. Please note that our story begins on page 17 of the digital magazine!

Livability Ames is sponsored by the Ames Chamber of Commerce.

We are grateful for the opportunity to be featured among the awesome businesses and organizations that make living
in Story County, Iowa great.

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Blog

Welcome to Our Blog Space!

Welcome writers and voracious readers to our blog space! Here you will find blogs from the Ames Writers Collective founder, Ana McCracken, guest writers and authors who want to share tidbits about how they write and publish! Author Q & A’s! Writers who submit their writing inspired by our writing prompts. If you fit one of the above categories and would like to blog on our site, send us an email with your 75 words pitch.

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Supporter

Lynne Carey

Thank you for your generosity! Donors such as you help us maintain our community outreach programs.

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In The Media

Our Founder Reads at Litquake 2022

Ana McCracken, Ames Writers Collective’s founder, read a short piece as part of the Page Street writers at this year’s Litquake in San Francisco.

The topic was “Welcome to Enlightenment.”

Listen to Ana’s reading here:


Litquake is San Francisco’s annual literary festival. Originally a single-day event, it now has a two-week run in mid-October, as well as year-round programs and workshops.

Litquake consists of readings, discussions, film screenings, and themed events held at hundreds of Bay Area venues, in an attempt to bring as many disparate types of literary art to as many people as possible. The festival now features over 100 events and around 600 authors, and draws over 21,000 attendees annually. In 2021, 96% of all events were free and open to the public.

Litquake’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuating a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. They work to produce events that are accessible to all. Read more about Litquake here. Learn more about Page Street here.

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In The Media

First Swift Writers Workshop is a Success

Swift Youth Writers

In July we held the first Ames Writers Collective Swift Youth Writing Workshop, and it was a huge success!

It was fun, and challenging, and all of us learned so much from writing together.

Our writers were twelve kids ranging from 7th grade to 12th grade, and they wrote for five days to writing prompts. After each writing session the kids were gently encouraged to read their writing to the group. It took a bit for the kids to feel comfortable reading aloud, but in the end everyone read their freshly written pieces. Some of what the kids had to say:

“I did share my writing because I felt comfortable and knew I wouldn’t be judged.”

“I learnt by sharing with the group that I’m more confident than I thought.”

One thing that is truly awesome is that there was a nice mix of ages. The youth librarian suggested the age range and it worked exactly as he said it would. The success of this workshop demonstrates that we’re all filled with stories that want to be told. And stories cross divides.

The Swift Youth Writers Workshop was made possible by a Rotary Club of Ames Community Grant. The workshop was held in partnership with the Ames Public Library, which provided the Rotary Room and lunches from the summer lunch program for the group. A big thank you to the Rotary Club of Ames and the Ames Public Library, and a big shout out to Jessi Brock for co-facilitating with me!

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In The Media

Why Join a Cancer Writing Circle?

Video – Writing Circle Wednesdays

If you are going through cancer treatment, or have completed treatment within the last two years, why would you want to be part of a weekly writing circle? What if you don’t think of yourself as a writer?

Writing Circle attendees can answer those questions better than we can! In this video, attendees explain how their weekly group is more than the sum of its parts, how it helps, and how much it means to them.



 

Our Cancer Writing Circle, held in partnership with the William R. Bliss Cancer Resource Center, offers those receiving treatment for cancer or those who have completed treatment within the last two years a safe space to connect, express themselves, and to feel heard. During sessions, participants write together from writing prompts, which inspire stories from their lives. Writers are gently invited to read their “fresh” writing, and each writer receives positive feedback from the group.

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Testimonial

Ann R.

“I learned things I didn’t expect with Ana. I might say, I took some things in and rejected a few others. This was possible because of the very graceful way that Ana teaches and supports students.”

— Ann R.