Ava Wilson

I grew up in the Texas Panhandle, married, and moved to Anchorage, Alaska. While raising three daughters, we embraced the Alaskan lifestyle, canning salmon, baking sourdough bread, and butchering moose and caribou for the freezer. I began penning short stories, and a travel article was published in Trailer Life Magazine. Almost every summer for thirty-eight years, our family lived in a cabin on a lagoon, near a fishing village on the Kenai Peninsula. Our daughters and grandchildren grew up crossing paths with eagles, whales, otters and bears. In the 1990's my husband, Dan, and I owned a rare and out-of-print book store. Much of my inspiration to write sprang from the experiences I've had and adventures told to me by friends and family during those years in Alaska. My own ancestors' memoirs of moving west after the Civil War provided details of family life that were included in The Driftwood Diaries. I like writing fiction about women who step away from sad lives, into newly discovered self-worth and bravery.