When you ask Audra’s mom and dad what she was like as a child, their answer is the same! Busy, busy, busy!
“She always had a hundred projects going on at the same time. Stories half written at the kitchen table, fairy forts made of ropes and blankets all strung from one tree to another in the backyard, terrariums in the bathtub, art projects spread out in the garage. You name it.”
Well, not a lot has changed! Audra still keeps herself busy with a variety of fulfilling and artistic endeavors. Sometimes you can find her, hands covered in dirt, tending the unruly rose garden behind her purple house or in the kitchen making scones with wild blueberries just plucked from the bush. Often you can find her in the studio as she sorts through piles of found and forgotten objects that magically make their way into her mixed-media art. Late at night, she’s mostly at her large desk surrounded by multiple drafts of her own writing or that of her students.
But on those most beautiful of days, when the sky is the perfect shade of blue and filled with the drifting of cumulus whales and circus bears, you can still find her stringing up blankets for a fairy fort. Only now she has the help of her wild-hearted, nine-year-old daughter who happens to have her own strong ideas about fairy construction.
If you still can’t find her, it’s a safe bet she’s escaped to the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains in search of cold rivers to swim in, long trails to wander, and the perfect spot to pitch her tent.
BIO
Audra Coleman is a writer, artist and educator living in Asheville, NC. With a concentration in creative writing, she is an alumnus of the Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences program at UNC Asheville. While there, she was named the winner of the 2018 Confluence Award for Excellence in Creative Writing awarded by the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs. Her work in poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in various publications including Good Mother Project, 3288 Review, Kestrel, Palaver, Quail Bell Magazine, Great Smokies Review, Five on Fifth, Into the Void, Star 82 Review, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Penn Review, Corvus Review, Mojave River Press, Confluence, Hoot and Pretty Owl Poetry. She currently teaches creative nonfiction courses for the Great Smokies Writing Program in Asheville, North Carolina. You can find her mixed media artwork and handmade crowns for sale at different locations in downtown Asheville and on Etsy.