The Nebraska Girl Lit Hour Guest Colleen McElroy

Join Melissa F Alvarado as she talks to , Colleen McElroy bout her new book Here I Throw Down My Heart

A poet and short story writer with an intense sense of place, Colleen McElroy was born in St. Louis to Ruth Celeste and Purcia Purcell Rawls. After her parents divorced in 1938, McElroy and her mother moved in with her grandmother, whose full-length boudoir mirror and wind-up Victrola began what McElroy has called "her romance with language."  McElroy started writing intensely in her 30s. In an article for Seattle Womanmagazine, she attributed her awareness of language to her training in speech pathology. McElroy’s work is influenced by her extensive travels, the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, and the experience of African American women.