Bio

Ashleigh Gill (she/her) has authored over ten original plays, fiction, and award-winning children's poetry. She holds an MFA from Hollins University, and a BA in English Literature and a BS in Education from Concord University. She grew up in Hinton, West Virginia, and currently lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. ​

"I grew up on my parents' mountaintop farm in Hinton, West Virginia, in a log house my father built by hand. My family still raises sheep there. As you might expect, nature and animal life are vital influences in all my work, as are the fairy tales, poetry, and songs I grew up with.

Being a writer has always been my dream - but growing up in a small town,  I had no idea where to begin, or who to ask for help. 

A lot of people encouraged me to come up with a different plan for my life - a safer, more practical plan. And that's fair. Being an artist is risky, hard, and unreliable. But whenever I thought of giving up writing, something in me burned so bright it hurt, and I promised myself that whatever else I had to do, I'd be a writer in the end. ​

I knew that my best shot was going to college, and meeting as many different kinds of artists and writers as possible. As a  first generation student, programs like Upward Bound, Student Support Services, and McNair Scholars helped me navigate applications and scholarships.

I received my BA in English Literature and my BS in Education from Concord University, and my MFA in Children's Literature from Hollins University. Those are the places I formed literary friendships, and  learned most about writing. For me, it helped.

While seeking those degrees, I've held lots of jobs. 

I've worked in childcare, cafeterias, and tutoring. In Grad school I worked in Housing and Residence Life, responding to campus emergencies. I've been a barista, an office assistant, an 8th grade teacher. I helped carve a park trail with a pickaxe - and if anyone has no business with a pickaxe, it's  me. In one job, I did everything from garden work, to housekeeping, to social media management. In another, I helped community organizers begin an artistic movement. And I wrote, I wrote, I wrote. 

​Now,  I keep my ties to home strong and close, marveling at my nieces and nephew, and whenever possible, driving back to the fields crowded with our sheep, our stories, and our history. I spend my time at an antique desk I bought with some of the first money I earned from writing. It looks out on my little garden, where I like to worry over my pumpkin vines and write about impossible things happening to strange children.

​Especially children in the hills. "

More at https://www.aegill.com/

Credits