Vanya Erickson, Award-winning author
Vanya Erickson is the award-winning author of Boot Language,
a memoir about growing up on a ranch during the Vietnam era. Long ago, she used to photograph and haul horses for a living. But for the last 25 years, she has been mentoring teachers while teaching writing and public speaking in the oldest, continuously used schoolhouse in California. She’s passionate about hiking the High Sierras as well as dramatically reading aloud to children. Vanya holds a BA in Comparative Literature as well as a Teaching Credential, both from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her essays have appeared in a dozen literary journals and anthologies.
Listen to Vanya’s interview on “Stories that Empower” with Sean Farjadi
Her essays have appeared in a dozen literary journals and anthologies. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature and a Teaching Credential from The University of California at Santa Cruz. A retired teacher, she spent 25 years teaching writing and mentoring teachers in the oldest, continuously used schoolhouse in California. She lives for reading aloud in her off time, hiking in forests, and working with therapy horses.
Passionate about women’s stories,
Vanya Erickson has completed her historical novel DRIVEN - inspired by her grandmother’s experiences during WWI, a ballerina who threw away her career to become an ambulance driver in France. Vanya is currently querying agents.
A research fanatic, Vanya has read, interviewed, and traveled extensively to investigate restrictions on women at that time, including medical research on therapies performed on women in institutions - and the shadow of that treatment today. Her writing room is surrounded by memorabilia of the 1910s, including music, vintage photographs, suffrage posters, and her grandmother’s riveting self-portrait. In addition, she’s a language geek, studying word usage of the day to write accurate and sometimes hilarious dialogue.
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