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Amber Ridenour Walker

Goodreads Author

Born

in Manson, Washington, The United States

Website

https://amberridenourwalker.com

Genre

Poetry, Memoir

Member Since

December 2018

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/amberellathebarbarian

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Amber Ridenour Walker’s work has appeared in 20 Minutes in Portland: A Special Edition of The Portland Review, Word Riot, elimae, ALARM Magazine, Fast Forward, 580 Split, and most recently, Tiny Spoon, The Corvus Review, LEON Literary Review, Local Smoke, Jaden Magazine, and Bombay Gin. Two of her chapbooks, Autobiographical Alley Map and Smithereens, were published through Nightbomb Press, and she edited The Nightbomb Review from 2008-2012. Amber holds an MFA from The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and she currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she works as a hairdresser and a reader for Split Lip. She grew up in the census-designated area known as Manson, WA, on 100 acres of apple orchards.

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Amber Ridenour Walker While writing my thesis, I had the realization that the vast majority of things I have written are born from the experience of growing up on the shore…moreWhile writing my thesis, I had the realization that the vast majority of things I have written are born from the experience of growing up on the shores of Lake Chelan, Washington. While a huge tourist draw in the summer, the lake (and a lot of the Chelan Valley, for that matter) is the source of many spooky local legends, from lake monsters to inexplicable "things" up in the canyons. Every summer, lighting strikes cause huge fires up in the hills. The lake is large enough to create it's own weather to some extent, and there are definitely fatalities.

Chelan made headlines in 1954, when an entire school bus slid into the lake. The driver and 15 students drowned. (You can read about it here: https://www.historylink.org/File/7645 ). As is typical of Lake Chelan, many of the bodies were never recovered. One local once told me that his father had been one of the surviving kids, and he swore up and down that most of the students had made it to the shore, then turned around and swam back down to the sunken bus. True or not, this struck me as an apt metaphor for addiction, trauma, and the pull of the past, itself.

We are flavored by our environments; to some extent, I think no writer really escapes their hometown. A good deal of my metaphors have always wound themselves around either drowning or burning. There are many ways to drown in small towns; there are many who never make it out, and even if they do, there are other dangers waiting. There is a part of me that is always swimming back down to the wreck. (less)

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Amber Ridenour Walker Read everything; don't be one of those writers who takes some weird pride in never reading other poets.

Support all your fellow artists. Go to their e…moreRead everything; don't be one of those writers who takes some weird pride in never reading other poets.

Support all your fellow artists. Go to their events and buy whatever they make.

Buy books from small presses and send them your work!

Be polite and humble no matter what.

Never forget anyone who was ever nice to you.

Feed all the broke artists you know. Let them crash on your floor for a week if need be.

Never forget that you don't get anywhere by yourself: we are all here for and because of one another. (less)

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Amber Ridenour Walker’s books

Average rating: 4.71 · 14 ratings · 5 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Surfacing 4.69 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	i thought this would be cooler it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars