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Alli Marshall

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United Kingdom

May 27

Website

http://alli-marshall.com

Twitter

alli_marshall

Genre

Fiction, Music

Member Since

August 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/allimarshall

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Alli Marshall wrote her first book when she was in second grade. It was released as a lim-ited edition, crayon-print run. She went on to win a number of awards, such as the 1980 and ’81 Wayne County History Jamborees.

Alli grew up in small town Western New York state, thanks to her parents who made the inexplicable decision to move from San Francisco before she was born. It wasn’t as tragic as it seems: One time a movie crew came to town to film the critically panned Lady in White.

As a teenager, Alli planned to be a fashion designer. She spent endless hours in vintage stores and thrift shops and spent a lot of her allowance on black RIT dye. In the meantime, she was obsessively journalling, though it didn’t really occur to her until she wa Alli Marshall wrote her first book when she was in second grade. It was released as a lim-ited edition, crayon-print run. She went on to win a number of awards, such as the 1980 and ’81 Wayne County History Jamborees.

Alli grew up in small town Western New York state, thanks to her parents who made the inexplicable decision to move from San Francisco before she was born. It wasn’t as tragic as it seems: One time a movie crew came to town to film the critically panned Lady in White.

As a teenager, Alli planned to be a fashion designer. She spent endless hours in vintage stores and thrift shops and spent a lot of her allowance on black RIT dye. In the meantime, she was obsessively journalling, though it didn’t really occur to her until she was in college that all of that journal-keeping might point to a career as a writer. In the ’90s and colleges were more concerned with “experience” than “focusing on a study course that will lead you to a job so you can repay your student loans.”

But Alli did manage to have a number of experiences in college, from hanging out with Deadheads in Golden Gate Park and riding cross-country on a Greyhound bus to living on a commune in Missouri and hiding out in a Buddhist monastery in Sri Lanka. None of those expe-riences raised a dime toward student loans, but some found their way into poems, short stories and a novel. (Unpublished.)

In 1998, realizing she had little talent for working in group homes, hotels or restaurants, Alli went to Goddard College to pursue an MFA. There, she studied with Chase Twichell and met the late Agha Shahid Ali (who was kind of a mentor even though he probably didn’t mean to be).

After studying poetry for two-and-a-half years, Alli graduated and promptly started writ-ing fiction. She wrote her first novel (unpublished) while “working” as an administrative assis-tant at a fancy hotel. Writing fiction certainly beat answering phones — yet, as Alli learned later, even though writing is pretty much the best thing ever (except for the divine combination of chocolate and peanut butter), when one has decided to “work on a novel” one often finds oneself procrastinating in ways that involve paying bills, cleaning the refrigerator and scheduling long-overdue doctor’s visits. Because a tetanus shot beats THE SHEER TERROR OF THE BLANK PAGE.

The good news is that Alli works full time as the arts editor for Mountain Xpress, an alternative newsweekly. She completed her first novel, How to Talk to Rockstars — an exploration of love, loneliness and rock ’n’ roll — published by Logosophia Books. Alli is currently shop-ping an LGBTQ young adult novel (set in the ’80s, among vintage stores and thrift shops) to agents while working on new project of historical fiction. ...more

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Combine Editions
Alli Marshall’s books

Average rating: 4.09 · 11 ratings · 3 reviews · 1 distinct work

How to Talk to Rockstars

4.09 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions

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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Alli Marshall's Blog

Top-Ten Superpowers of All Time

This show is part of the 2022 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival.

The Top-Ten Superpowers of All Time is an exploration — in poetry, music, and performance art — of heroic ability.

Humanbeings are miraculous and flawed. Being human is an exercise in bold imagining and dashed hopes. We long for grace, dexterity, and bravery to get us out of jams and elevate us above our mundane experience. At the sam

Alli is Currently Reading

Alli is currently reading

Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft (Llewellyn's Practical Magick)

by Raymond Buckland

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Dec 25, 2016 04:21PM

Alli is currently reading

Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood

by Wilma Dykeman

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Aug 24, 2016 11:51AM

Alli is currently reading

Nevada

by Imogen Binnie (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 24, 2016 11:50AM

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
☀ How to Talk to Rockstars - Alli Marshall [$25 GC giveaway]	1	4	Jun 02, 2015 10:09PM
Making Connections: Holding A Blog Tour	116	862	Apr 22, 2018 08:06AM

Alli’s Quotes

“[when]asked, “What should I do if I want to become a writer?”
“Well,” Doris said, with that steely twinkle in her dark eyes, “My best advice for
you, honey, is to stop if you possibly can! And if you just can’t, then get ready to work
like hell. Hang onto your day job. And remember, you may not make a living, but you’ll
make a wonderful life.”
― Doris Betts

tags: on-the-writing-life

7 likes