About Patricia Henley
Patricia Henley is the author of three novels, five collections of stories, two chapbooks of poetry, and a stage play. Her first novel, Hummingbird House, was a finalist for The National Book Award and The New Yorker Fiction Prize. Haywire Books published a 20th Anniversary Edition of Hummingbird House in November, 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and other journals. Her first collection of stories, Friday Night at Silver Star (Graywolf), won the Montana First Book Award. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Circle of Women, The Last Best Place, and other anthologies. Apple & Palm, her collection of linked stories, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2026. For 26 years she taught in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Purdue University. She teaches a monthly Zoom workshop for women writers and lives in Kingston, Washington.
A Profile of the Author
Notes on the work
The story “Currency” had a long gestation period. At first, I wanted it to be a novel. The idea began when I learned, at the age of four, that my father had been in love with a woman in Australia during WW II, before he returned home to Indiana and married my mother. The woman he loved in Australia continued writing to my paternal grandmother long after I was born. I was fascinated with a book she sent my grandmother. The book had a photo of an Aboriginal man on the cover. This sparked my lifelong interest in travel. Later, as an adult, I discovered a cache of WW II letters my father had written to his mother and father. I went down several rabbit holes over a period of years, trying to find evidence of another cache of letters, perhaps from my father, in Australia. I read all I could find about the war in Australia. I came up against dead-ends. I realized that the story needed to be a short story rather than a novel. That’s when fictionalizing Roxy’s story began. The most memorable stories can take a long time to write.
Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.
I can’t listen to music while working, and I envy writers who can. Several times a week, I ask Alexa to play danceable music and I get up from the computer and move. As for food, I imagine you’ll find this awfully boring. I have found a new way to consume greens — spinach, arugula, chard. I make a green smoothie and combine those greens with ice, yogurt, and vanilla protein powder. I always feel as if I’ve done my body a good turn after drinking this. In other food-related news: My little town on the Kitsap Peninsula has a new Indian restaurant, its only Indian restaurant. It’s a treat. The thing that’s bringing me great joy these days is anticipating the arrival of a puppy to our household. His name is Starbuck, named for the first mate in Moby Dick.
