I was born in the woods of Alaska’s Golden Heart on the longest night of the year.
Okay, that’s not exactly true. But you know what? I write fiction, and I stand behind that hyperbole. Call me an unreliable narrator.
If you want the real, prosaic truth, I was born at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital early on the morning before the Winter Solstice, and my parents took me home to a house in the woods, which they built themselves, buying supplies with money they earned working on the construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. When I was four years old, we moved to Anchorage, and that’s where I grew up.
That’s also around the same time I wrote my first story. With the exception of some solid worldbuilding, it was truly terrible, but in my defense, I was five years old. (And I still wouldn’t say no to a Netflix development deal for it. Call me.)
Other than that, I did normal kid things: oboe lessons, tai chi classes, halibut fishing, going to the opera, playing handbells… you know, your run of the mill childhood.
When I was seventeen, I had the life-changing opportunity to write for the Anchorage Daily News, my hometown daily. After graduation, I headed to Oregon to study journalism at the University of Portland. Although I did end up becoming editor of The Beacon, our college weekly, ultimately I earned my degree in English. At UP, I was fortunate enough to encounter Portland Magazine editor Brian Doyle, who became a trusted mentor.
My first Real Career™️ out of college was in summer camping. I spent three years on the East Coast, working full-time for a top girls’ sleepaway camp. I loved the work, but I loved writing even more, so I returned to Alaska to earn an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage. I studied under incredible writers there, including Sherry Simpson and my advisor and mentor, Jo-Ann Mapson.
After that, a lot of things happened: I worked as a paralegal and legal writer. I freelanced. I had an ill-advised foray into religious media. I became managing editor of an online news startup. I met and married my husband. I went into advertising. I had a baby. I returned to the online news startup, which then bought the local paper, for which I then became the head of sales (and built Alaska’s first-ever in-house sponsored content production program, which was a huge success, and launched a white-label dating site for Alaskans, which was a huge flop). I had another baby. My husband got a job in the NBA and we moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The newspaper went under. I ran my own content consultancy. I wrote a pandemic newsletter. I became a dance mom. And I finally finished a novel for young adults, set in — you guessed it — Alaska.
Stay tuned to learn what comes next…
Maia K. Nolan 