The Writer:

Sarah Stonich has been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and a Loft McKnight Fellowship. Her first novel, These Granite Islands, was a critical success (see REVIEWS) selling 40,000 copies in the US alone. It was translated into seven languages and short-listed for France's prestigious Grand Prix de lectrices d'Elle.

Her second novel The Ice Chorus got rave reviews, and accolades from readers continue to roll in - this novel will be re-issued in paperback in March of '08 by prestigous ALMA BOOKS of England, importers of high quality American literature.  Alma will distribute THE ICE CHORUS in English language markets wordwide.

Currently...

I've just finished writing Vacationand, a collection of stories that link characters over a span of decades to the same resort near the Canadian border in Minnesota. Just waiting for a publisher or representation!

My work-in-progress, Fishing With RayAnne is a comic novel and my first foray into mainstream fiction. Thirty-something RayAnne has just left the pro fishing circuit to host an all womens' fishing progam. We follow her through a year of adjustment that includes the ever-louder tick of her biological clock, the challenges of interviewing the odd guests on her program, internet dating, and a family of characters she sometimes wishes were normal. After the sudden death of her beloved Grandmother Dot, RayAnne goes into an emotional tailspin and finds she must re-asess her life.  In the end, she finds what she's been seeking was there all along.

Soon:

I'm also finishing a nonfiction book, Shelter, essays surrounding my return to Northern Minnesota where our family name is fading from local memory.  The book was inpsired by an endeavor to create a typical immigrant homestead and writing retreat. To date, we have two tiny cabins and an outhouse.  With no electricity or water, it's quite authentic.  The border country is a place where my grandparents raised ten children and were able to make thier livelihoods, but where my father, aunts and uncles could not.  I'm the only Stonich to return with any permanence in mind, hoping to mend our fraying legacy.

The Life:

I've been an artist-in-residence at a number of writers' colonies here and abroad.  While at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, I started The Ice Chorus (see Excerpt). The following year I was a Drue Heinz Fellow at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, where I began pulling together essays for SHELTER and stories for VACATIONLAND (see New Work)   This January and Feburary ('08) I was a writer-in-residence at The Kimmel Harding Nelson center in Nebraska. Such concentrated time to work is invaluable - not only for the opportunity to work, but for the chance to meet other writers. Since the act of writing is so solitary, it's great to be able to meet and discuss the life with others - to exchange work, to bounce ideas, be inspired, be validated and sometimes, commiserate.

I try to get out as much as I can - to literary seminars, conferences, library events, etc.  In 2005 I moderated discussions at the Irish Writers' Festival in Aspen in panels featuring Edna O'Brien, Jamie O'Neill, Colum McCann, Nuala O'Faolin and others.  Irish traditions of storytelling, and my Irish contemporaries have been most inspiring to me as a writer. Irish literature has had a deep impact on me as a reader. Right now my nightstand is piled with William Trevor, Tessa Hadley and Dermot Bolger.

Sarah moderating a roundtable discussion at the Aspen Irish Writers' festival, here with Edna O'Brien, Colum McCann, Jamie O'Neill, and Nuala O'Faolin.  Not pictured are Hugo Hamilton, Polly Devlin, Gerard Donovan, and Malachy McCourt.

ON WRITING:

John Berger wrote "a child sees his world before he understands it". I like to place characters in environments that they invariably must respond to. Each of thier reactions to place, however small, reveals how characters see the world arround them, providing clues to their inner lives.

Once a novel or story is plotted, I set off to follow my characters.  When they lead to a place where I don't know what's coming next, I know I'm really writing.