Anne Leigh Parrish

Award-winning novelist, short story writer & poet. In love with the power and beauty of the written word. Photography & women's rights enthusiast.

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

“So what is wild? What is wilderness? What are dreams but an internal wilderness and what is desire but a wildness of the soul?”

― Louise Erdrich, The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year

#WritingCommunity #AmWriting #LitFic

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

Edith Sloan, the rebellious, well-educated heroine of an open door returns in The Hedgerow to pursue her dreams of owning a thriving bookstore on Harvard Square and establishing a poetry press.

Coming this summer from @UnsolicitedP!

#HistoricalFiction

https://t.co/wfXcnIkrjR

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

What’s true for a short story is also true for a novel.

Keep your facts straight.

Keep your character in character until they’re pushed just too far.

Consider the path of your story and how it leads the reader to their eventual understanding.

#AmWriting

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

My favorite place to read a book, hands down, is propped up in bed!

Where is your favorite place to read a book?

#AmReading #WritingCommunity

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

I loved watching Perry Mason when I was a kid — the edgy black-and-white film, the unlikely plots, the relentless drive for truth. Not to mention the cars. What kid immersed in reruns doesn’t develop a passion for a ’57 Ford?

What TV shows did you watch when you were a kid?

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

Light and Shade, Arizona

Check out more of my photography here: https://t.co/YNSN7Map84

#Photography #Nature

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

"If you think you see a face in the clouds, why not send a greeting? It can’t do any harm."

— Mary Oliver, Blue Horses

#Poetry #WritingCommunity

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

Is there a book character you’d be best friends with?

I’d be friends with Irene American, from Louise Erdrich’s novel Shadow Tag. I would want her to trust me about why she keeps two diaries — one truthful and the decoy she leaves for her snooping husband to find.

#AmWriting

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

Literary fiction is a strange yet compelling animal. So much emphasis on language, rhythm, imagery. And let’s not forget character. Some novels are all about the character and the mad world behind their eyes.

What is something you focus on in your writing?

#WritingCommunity

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

"The stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own."

— Mary Oliver

In case you didn’t already know, I’m a poetry fanatic.

What poet's words do you connect to most?

#Poetry #WritingCommunity

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

Do you recall Edith Sloan from an open door?

In the book, Edith felt trapped by her marriage to Walter but found freedom working in a local bookstore.

Now, it’s 1949, and news about Walter has thrown Edith into a tailspin. Will she recover?

The Hedgerow pubs 7/9/24

[Anne Leigh Parrish @AnneLParrish]

Reading myself ten years after the fact is always odd, and sometimes uncomfortable, though I never cringe. I accept that I’m in a different place now, and will be in a new place a year hence.

How do you feel when you read your old work?

#AmWriting #WritingCommunity