Mona Susan Power

How did you become a writer? My parents met in the world of publishing, so I grew up in a home of dedicated readers. I remember being a preschooler, holding open a copy of Alice in Wonderland, willing myself to summon the magic to read the tantalizing pages (mesmerized by the illustrations). Once I could finally read on my own, the world opened in wonderful ways! Words were my friends, allies, protectors. When I wasn’t allowed to express difficult emotions in the open, I could write my heart out on the page. However, because writing was so integral to my survival from a very young age, it took me a while to consider trying to pursue it as a career. It wasn’t until I was in law school that I realized a legal career wasn’t my true calling since I had always been an Arts person (writer, singer, dancer, actress). I completed my schooling and earned the law degree, but then became serious about developing my craft as a writer.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). My parents were my first influences—my mother taking me to several libraries each week because libraries were essentially her church. She was also a phenomenal storyteller, and later developed into a talented writer, though she didn’t want to send her work out for publication. My father read aloud to me each night in the years before I could read, in a wonderfully dramatic voice that brought every story to life! Perhaps because of this, an important part of my craft in the editing stage is to read my work aloud. I need to hear the rhythm of sentences, the dialogue.

I was also very fortunate to have high school teachers who encouraged my writing: English teacher, Darlene McCampbell, and Acting teacher, Liucija Ambrosini. I was so thrilled to reconnect with them this past year! Frank Conroy changed my life by accepting me into the MFA program at the University of Iowa in 1990, championing my work, and Margot Livesey was a generous teacher and mentor there.

When Louise Erdrich’s first novel, Love Medicine, was published in 1984, I was so inspired—galvanized! Her stunning writing continues to be an inspiration.

When and where do you write? I can write pretty much anywhere, everywhere, though my preferred place is on my comfy couch with trusty computer settled on a lap desk. One time I had a character’s voice suddenly fill my head with delicious sentences and information when I was out on an exercise walk. I didn’t want to miss a single word, so I dashed into a bank lobby and began writing on a large bank deposit envelope.

When I’m in “finishing mode” with a novel, the pages quickly stack up each day. I’m the happiest at these times and rush out of bed in the morning, eager to begin writing as soon as I finish breakfast. Then I might do more writing in the evening. The momentum builds so much towards the end of a project.

What are you working on now? I have a personal deadline to finish a new novel in coming months. Actually, it’s a book I first began writing years ago, but A Council of Dolls elbowed it out of the way, almost demanding I write it in early 2021. It wanted to be “born” immediately! So now I’ve returned to my earlier novel with the working title, Harvard Indian Séance at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? I can always write, but there are periods where what I write just isn’t working for me. Especially with longer projects, such as novels, I sometimes begin writing them too soon, before I’ve figured out some important elements of the story, or fully understand the characters involved. Thankfully I’ve learned to be more patient and move on to other projects when a book needs to simmer on the backburner.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Writers are often told to “write what [we] know.” But back in the 1990’s I heard author Marcie Hershman offer the advice: “Write what you need to know.” This speaks to me on a deep level. I also greatly appreciate Marcie Rendon’s recent talk at a writing conference where she said she writes all the time. Boom! Write!

What’s your advice to new writers? Read! One of my first strategies when I decided to shift gears from the Law to Creative Writing, was to read award-winning works in the genre that most appealed to me: Literary Fiction. I absorbed so much about craft intuitively, via this steady diet of inspiring work.

Mona Susan Power is the author of four books of fiction: The Grass Dancer (awarded the PEN/Hemingway prize), Roofwalker, Sacred Wilderness, and A Council of Dolls (winner of the Minnesota Book Award and the High Plains Book Award, longlisted for the National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize). Fellowships in support of her work include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship, and McKnight Fellowship. Her short stories and essays have been widely published in journals and anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories series, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, andGranta. Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe (Yanktonai Dakota), born and raised in Chicago. She currently lives in Minnesota, where she's working to complete a new novel.