About
A writer from a town that no longer fishes
Novelist, essayist, occasional teacher. Three books, nine languages, one stretch of coast.
Photo: Ida Marchetti. Download hi-res in the press kit.
Biography
Listening closely, taking everything down
Wren Hollis is the author of three books set along the same stretch of northern coast. Her work has been shortlisted for the Coastal Fiction Prize and translated into nine languages.
She grew up in a fishing town that no longer fishes, the daughter of a harbor master and a piano teacher, and spent a decade as a court stenographer before her first stories appeared in print. That job — listening closely, taking everything down, judging nothing — is still how she describes the work.
Her debut collection, A Field Guide to Leaving, won the Harbor First Book Award. Her second book, What the River Keeps, was a national bestseller and a Book-of-the-Year pick at three independent bookstores. The Salt Orchard is her third.
She teaches a small fiction workshop each spring, speaks to book clubs by video most Thursday evenings, and is represented by Tamsin Oyelaran at Kestrel Literary.
Writes
5 a.m. to 9 a.m., longhand first
Lives
A drafty house near Port Ellery, Maine
Taught
Fiction workshops for 11 years
Rereads
Housekeeping, every October
Speaking & workshops
Talks that feel like a conversation
Wren speaks at festivals, libraries, universities and bookstores, and teaches a small spring workshop each year. She is warm on stage, allergic to slides, and always stays to sign.
- 01
Writing the place you left
A craft talk on setting as character, and how to write home without nostalgia. 45–60 minutes, with Q&A.
- 02
The arithmetic of care
On sisters, inheritance and the novels that taught her to write about family money honestly. Keynote or conversation.
- 03
The two-day fiction workshop
Twelve writers, close reading, generative prompts and one long walk. Offered to arts centers, libraries and MFA programs.
Honoraria are shared with the host’s literacy partner wherever one exists. Travel from Portland, Maine.
On the work
Across three books
Quotes shown are sample press copy. Replace them with your own reviews, blurbs and reader notes.
“Hollis writes the coast the way other people write about lovers — with attention, grievance, and a loyalty that outlasts sense.”
The Literary Review, on What the River Keeps
“A debut of unusual restraint. Each story ends a beat before you expect, and the silence does the rest.”
Northern Lights Books, on A Field Guide to Leaving
“Her sentences are plain the way a good table is plain: you could put anything on them.”
The Weekend Books Page
“The rare literary novelist whose events sell out — because she is as generous in a room as she is on the page.”
Driftwood Books, bookseller’s note
Keep reading
Start with the new one
The Salt Orchard is out March 17. Pre-order from any bookseller, or come to a launch event and have it signed.