Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Mari Strachan was born into a Welsh family in Harlech, which is located on the north-west coast of Wales, and was brought up there with Welsh as her first language.
After graduating from Cardiff University, she became a qualified chartered librarian, and she worked in a variety of libraries. She has also been a book reviewer, researcher, translator, copywriter and web editor.
In 2007 she acquired an MA (with distinction) in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University.
In addition to writing and reading, Strachan's interests include the history as well as future forms of sustainable living.
She and her husband now live on a tiny smallholding in Ceredigion.
Mari Strachan's website
This bio was last updated on 01/05/2014. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
We find it inspirational that you are being published for the first time in
your sixties. Has this novel been a long time coming?
No. I've always written, on and off, scraps, short stories, even poems
(terrible ones, I'm no poet!) but never thought anything was worth publishing.
The urge to write is hard to ignore. I decided to focus on it, a now or never
thing, and in 2002 applied for a place on a part-time, on-line creative writing
Masters course with Manchester Metropolitan University. The course was
excellent; the way it studied other novels and made me focus on my own writing
showed me that I had been ignoring my own voice and style and trying to imitate
other writers whose books I admired. That was a revelation to me. The Earth Hums
in B Flat was written as the 'dissertation' element of the course. It began with
an image that had been in my mind for some time (so maybe I should qualify that
adamant 'no' at the beginning) of a skinny child, with wild red hair, balancing
on the seat of a chair with her arms outstretched. Altogether, it took three
years to write (there was a year when I did no writing when my energies were
taken up by family matters). I graduated in 2007 with distinction, and ...
Peter Ho Davie's latest book is A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself. His previous novel, The Fortunes, a New York Times Notable Book, won the Anisfield-Wolf Award and the Chautauqua Prize, and was a finalist for the Dayton ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Earth Hums in B Flat
Try:
The Welsh Girl
by Peter Ho Davies
Born in Tehran, Marsha Mehran escaped the upheaval of the Iranian revolution with her family. She grew up in Argentina and the United States. She also lived in Australia and Ireland. Mehran's debut novel Pomegranate Soup was ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Earth Hums in B Flat
Try:
Pomegranate Soup
by Marsha Mehran
We recommend 5 similar authors
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
