Alisa Alering discusses their debut novel, Smothermoss, growing up on a farm, writerly trickery, place, southern Pennsylvania, how unlimited access to the outdoors as a child influenced their writing, what time means to a mountain, the energy of the natural world, the real-life tragedy that features in the novel, setting the novel in the 1980s, starting the novel as a collage, and so much more!

Alisa Alering grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and now lives in Arizona. After attending Clarion West, their short fiction has been published in Fireside, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Podcastle, and Cast of Wonders, among others, and been recognized by the Calvino Prize. A former librarian and science/technology reporter, they teach fiction workshops at the Highlights Foundation.

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