Mary Sharratt is an American writer who has lived in the Pendle region of Lancashire, England for the past seven years. Her inspiration for her forthcoming novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Spring 2010), arose directly out of the wild, brooding landscape: the story of the Pendle Witches unfolded almost literally in her backyard.

Winner of the 2005 WILLA Literary Award and a Minnesota Book Award Finalist, Mary is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Summit Avenue (Coffee House 2000), The Real Minerva (Houghton Mifflin 2004), and The Vanishing Point (Houghton Mifflin 2006). Her first two novels were Book Sense picks, and The Vanishing Point was a UK Guardian Readers’ Book of the Year. She is also the co-editor of the subversive UK fiction anthology, Bitch Lit (Crocus Books UK 2006), a celebration of female anti-heroes which was featured in The Guardian and on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. Mary’s short stories have been widely published in journals and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic, including the recent Twin Cities Noir (Akashic Books 2006).

A former Historical Novels Society Reviews editor, Mary writes regular feature articles and author profiles for Solander and The Historical Novels Review.

When Mary isn’t writing fiction, she is usually off riding Boushka, her beautiful and spirited Welsh mare who is making a cameo appearance in Daughters of the Witching Hill as Alice Nutter’s horse.

Mary returns regularly to her hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota where she teaches workshops at The Loft Literary Center.

"The thing that gets me most excited is coaching my students on the power of story, the art of drawing the reader into the thick of the narrative. My job is helping my students discover the stories they need to tell and helping them develop their narrative voice. Then I stand back and listen to their stories unfold, spinning themselves on their own power."

More
Fairy Tales for Women: Writing Exercise
By Mary Sharratt
Through a Dark Forest: On Fairy Tales as Women's Stories and on Writing Summit Avenue
By Mary Sharratt
Summit Avenue Author Uses Fairy Tales to Break Through Clichés
By Mary Ann Grossman
Moments of Enchantment (at strangehorizons.com)
By Christopher Cobb

Author photo at top, courtesy of Anne Bullen.