Eowyn Ivey

Eowyn (pronounced A-o-win) LeMay Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. Her mother named her after a character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

She works at the independent bookstore Fireside Books where she plays matchmaker between readers and books. The Snow Child is her debut novel. Her short fiction appears in the anthology Cold Flashes, University of Alaska Press 2010, and the North Pacific Rim literary journal Cirque.

Recently I asked Ivey what she was reading. Her reply:

It’s rare for me to reread a book, but that’s what I’m doing right now with Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. I read it a few years ago, but then my book club chose it this month, so I’m enjoying it a second time. I have never come across another novel like this – it’s so laugh-out-loud funny and quirky, and yet doesn’t fall into that trap of being cynical or mean-spirited. It is somehow very genuine and tender. I never imagined I would so love a book that’s basically about the office culture.

Often when I’m reading a novel, I also have a nonfiction book on the side. Right now it’s Robert Morgan’s Lions of the West about men like Thomas Jefferson, David Crockett, Kit Carson, and Johnny Appleseed. I picked it up for two reasons – I’m a huge fan of Morgan’s novel Gap Creek, but also the theme of Lions of the West pertains to my next writing project. I’m fascinated by the drive for exploration that has carried people into the wildest, most remote parts of the world, and I’ve often wondered what motivated these explorers. Was it money or power, or curiosity and wanderlust? I’m discovering some great answers in this book.

Visit Eowyn Ivey's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue