Finalist in the 2024 Nick Adams Short Story Contest
Read the story: Bite
More about Ella Hansen:
- Sophomore at St. Olaf College
- Majors: Creative Writing and Film & Media Studies
- Concentration: Race and Ethnic Studies
- Hometown: Rosemount, MN
ACM: What sparked your interest in writing, and how did you get started writing fiction?
Hansen: Nothing has ever felt as right to me as writing. Stories will always find their way into my head no matter what I do with them, so of course, writing them down is only natural. I still have notebooks from elementary and middle school––falling apart at the edges––stuffed full of half-baked ideas and hastily scribbled stories. These days my notes are similarly eclectic, only stashed into various documents on my computer. Fiction draws my attention more than any other category of writing because the creation of characters, worlds, and scenes permits me to dive into another universe whenever I like.
ACM: How have you developed your writing while you’ve been at St. Olaf?
Hansen: At St. Olaf, I’ve been able to turn my longtime hobby into an academic path, with a hopeful career sometime down the road. The Creative Writing classes allow me to workshop my ideas, and the crucial information I garner from my other classes, extracurriculars, and the general St. Olaf experience enriches my knowledge and understanding of the world, which feeds directly into my work. With each passing semester, I learn more and more about what creative writing means to me, and what it can mean to those who interact with my writing in the future!
