Wednesday, April 23, 2025
5:00 – 7:00 P.M.
Free Pop-Up Workshop
Open to all!
Join Visiting Author Alice Hatcher for an inspiring evening of writing exploration and conversation. This informal workshop is designed to help writers at all levels find their voice. Bring your questions, your curiosity, and even your writing samples if you’d like.
Event Details:
- Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
- Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM
- Location: New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, New York Mills, MN
- Admission: Free and open to the public
Alice Hatcher Artist Bio:
After graduating from 28th grade at the University of Michigan, Alice Hatcher turned her attention from footnotes to fiction, and, after writing 3,476 drafts of a novel, published The Wonder That Was Ours. Winner of the 2017 Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction, The Wonder That Was Ours appeared on the long list for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.
Hatcher has also published short stories, essays, and poetry. With support from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, she recently completed a second novel. Hatcher teaches workshops at the Tucson branch of the NYC-based creative writing school, The Writers Studio.
In her application to the New York Mills Arts Retreat artist residency program, Alice shared this:
“As a writer and a teacher, it is my goal to engage people outside of an artistic circle defined by academic discipline, educational levels, or medium of choice. This stems, in part, from my choice to start writing fiction relatively late in life (I was 45 years old when I published my first story) and without an MFA.
In 2008, I left a tenure-track position teaching European History at Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, NY), resettled in Tucson, Arizona, and turned my attention from footnotes to fiction. I began the arduous process of learning to write by taking introductory courses in fiction at my local community college and at the Tucson branch of the NYC-based creative writing school, The Writers Studio (founded by poet Philip Schultz). Since then, I have published a novel, The Wonder That Was Ours (Dzanc, 2018), which appeared on the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Award long list. I have also published short fiction, essays, and poetry in numerous journals, received a special mention in the 2020 Pushcart Anthology, and won Reed Magazine’s 2023 John Steinbeck Award for Fiction.
Based on the publication of The Wonder That Was Ours, I was invited to serve as the Pima County (Tucson) Library’s Writer-in-Residence. In this capacity, I provided free mentoring to aspiring writers, mainly adults with no formal training and, often, no education beyond the high-school level. I had the chance to ‘give back’ to people who, like me, were coming at writing via a somewhat circuitous and/or non-traditional path.
It took me decades to find my artistic niche, but I feel immense gratitude for my winding journey, not least because much of my work draws upon my background as an academic historian of European history. With support from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, I just finished the research for my third novel, which explores grief and healing through the lives of two peasant women in rural France during World War I.”
While on residency in New York Mills, Alice is working on the first draft of her third novel. All are welcome to join Alice at this Pop Up Writing Workshop on April 23 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. in the NYM Regional Cultural Center Gallery. Registration is not required, however, we invite you to RSVP by calling 218-385-3339 to help with planning.
