Marilyn Skinner Lanier

Marilyn Skinner Lanier's desire to capture the drama associated with family ranching in the changing ethos of the post WWII rural American West has been a driving force in her writing. The author's childhood experiences growing up on remote cattle ranches in Jordan Valley, Oregon and Clark, Wyoming inspired her debut historical fiction novel, Hardpan, published in 2015, and now her second novel, Jo, a prequel to Hardpan, is slated for future publication. Many readers of Hardpan expressed an intense interest in the young ranch wife, Jo Glover. Their fascination with Jo's character arc and how she dealt with adversity in the arid landscape of the rural West in the 1950s and in her marriage to a rancher determined to stay on the land in the face of catastrophic failure led Lanier to write her second novel from Jo's point-of-view.The author has an MA in English from California State University-East Bay and has taken creative writing courses through UCLA Extension and many other workshops and online classes. She is a member of Women Writing the West and has participated in the Napa Valley Writers Conference, Fishtrap, and the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. A chapter from Hardpan, "The Fence," served as the source of a short film that won Director and Cinematographer awards in the 2008 UCLA Film Festival. Her short story, "Crazed Cat," won second place from among 74 entries for nonfiction in the 2019 Mendocino Coast Writing Contest. In addition to the two novels, Lanier has published short stories and personal essays in a variety of literary venues, including anthologies published by Redwood Writers and Stories on Stage Sacramento. She served as VP for Redwood Writers, the largest chapter of the California Writers Club, for several years; chaired the RW Speakers Committee; and co-chaired the 2018 biennial RW Writers Conference.