Author Bio
Nita Collins writes character-driven fiction that explores kinship: the relationships we have with each other, the land, and our community. She is drawn to humanist stories, and is finding her way increasingly into thrutopian fiction: stories that take our present crisis seriously and dare to imagine a way through it.
Mary Oliver's instructions for living a life — pay attention, be astonished, tell about it — are never far from her mind when she sits down to write, and her work is influenced by writers such as Emily St. John Mandel, Lily Brooks-Dalton, Becky Chambers, Charlotte McConaghy, Elif Shafak, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Samantha Harvey.
She lives with her husband and fur babies in Whitehorse, in Canada's Yukon Territory, where climate change is visible in the landscape, First Nations self-governance helps shape the culture, and the boreal forest is literally part of the city.
If she isn't home when you knock on the door, she's probably at their off-grid cabin located beside a nearby lake.
She is currently querying her debut novel, The Face of Amore.
More than Words is my personal blog over on Substack - a collection of letters addressed to a person who I have named Vi.
As in rhymes with pie...but you should silently substitute your own name, because you're the one I'm really writing to.
I'm doing my best to follow the poet Mary Oliver's most excellent instructions for living a life: pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it.
The Gate of Elderhood
A personal letter on menopause and what it means to step into elderhood in a culture that stopped valuing its wise women. Dear Vi, Have you ever thought about life as a series of gates? It’s been on my mind for a while, the older I get. Here’s what I’ve come up with. The first…
How a Winter Walk Solved A Writing Problem
Dear Vi, One of the story ideas I’ve got simmering on my brain’s back burner is set in a fictional town beside the Stewart River in Canada’s Yukon Territory. So far I only have the setting, but it’s important to me that the setting should almost be like character in the novel, not just a…
How to Show Tension in an Everyday Scene
This article explains a simple way to create scene tension in fiction. A strong scene shows a character with a goal, an obstacle in the way, and a decision about what to do next.