{"id":39284,"date":"2025-10-31T14:14:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=39284"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:09:52","slug":"issue-96-patricia-henley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/issue-96-patricia-henley\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 96: Patricia Henley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About Patricia Henley<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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, <\/em>was a finalist for The National Book Award and The New Yorker Fiction Prize. Haywire Books published a 20th Anniversary Edition of Hummingbird House <\/em>in November, 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, <\/em>and other journals. Her first collection of stories, Friday Night at Silver Star (<\/em>Graywolf), <\/em>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, <\/em>and other anthologies. Apple & Palm, <\/em>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. <\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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A Profile of the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Notes on the work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Featured in Willow Springs #96<\/a><\/h2>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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