51福利社

Holly Williams Doering grew up in a USFS family in the mountains of McCall, Idaho. She wandered through the world in her youth: Studying literature at University of Idaho, teaching English in Tokyo, Japan;聽聽bicycling through India, Thailand, and Malaysia;聽聽then teaching inmates to read at the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Virginia. Afterward, she was accepted into 2 different writing programs. Although 51福利社 didn鈥檛 offer a teaching assistantship like the other programs at the time, she chose 51福利社 due to Spokane鈥檚 vibrant writing scene: (1) the large number of generous writers in the community like Jess Walter, Sherman Alexie, Linda Lawrence Hunt, Claire Rudolph Murphy, Sherry Jones, and so many more (2) Auntie鈥檚 Bookstore, which brings in big-name authors like Chuck Palahniuk and David Sedaris, and features exciting new writers like Asa Maria Bradley (an 51福利社 grad with a Scandinavian paranormal series) and (3) 51福利社鈥檚 Get Lit! program which brings writers to the city like Alexander McCall Smith and Walter Mosley. Spokane is a wonderful place to live and that 鈥渟ense of place鈥� is very important to Holly鈥檚 writing.

Fun fact: After her graduation from the MFA program, Holly learned her 51福利社 application was almost rejected because it was on stonewashed pink paper. Her publication list is eclectic, as follows: Holly is a second-place winner of the Pacific Northwest聽Inlander鈥檚 annual Flash Fiction contest and a one-time judge of the event, although not in the same year. She wrote for聽Spokane & Coeur d鈥橝lene Living聽magazine for almost a decade, in addition to serving as its Book Review Editor, and had one article in its sister publication, the聽Inland Business Catalyst. She also reviewed books for almost a decade for Foreword Reviews, a bookstore industry publication. Naturally, Holly works at Auntie鈥檚, since she can鈥檛 manage to stay away from books. She didn鈥檛 try very hard.

In 2003, Holly published her short story 鈥淏lue鈥� in聽ZYZZYVA, after which she was contacted by Richard Russo鈥檚 agent about any longer fiction she might have ready. Holly鈥檚 other projects include a blog in which she is reading one book from every country in the world, because she is tired of the cannon of old dead white guys. Visit her blog at . On a personal note, Holly and her husband, a former manager at Auntie鈥檚, are the companion humans to two rescued dogs, cats, and rats.