photo

Ellen Hawley

» Episode 6: National Obsessions

“Annette didn't believe it herself at first.”

Ellen Hawley is the author of Trip Sheets, an award-winning novel about a troubled cab driver who begins making lists to try to organize her life.

Born and raised in New York, Hawley was inculcated with political ideals from an early age. Her parents met while both were organizing for a union, and Hawley has written, “I grew up during the McCarthy period helping my mother pass out leaflets on the street and watching her speak at meetings and from sound trucks.”

Hawley moved to Minnesota in 1966, and in addition to a series of jobs that included waitress, factory worker, cab driver, and host of a radio call-in show, she was active in politics herself. She didn’t begin writing until she was 30, after which she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Warren Wilson College and went on to work as an editor and writing teacher.

She was the editor of Minneapolis’ Loft Literary Center’s magazine for eighteen years. She now divides her time between Minnesota and Cornwall in the UK.

See what others are saying:

New In Paperback
Book News Entertainment Weekly, May 16, 2008.

Spinning the Battle
By Brigitte Frase. Special to the Star Tribune , May 9, 2008.

Other books by this author
book Trip Sheets
» Buy
 
Also in Episode 6: National Obsessions