Alyssa Hollingsworth

About Alyssa

Alyssa was born in small town Milton, Florida, but life as a roving military kid soon mellowed her (unintelligibly strong) Southern accent. Wanderlust is in her blood, and she’s always waiting for the wind to change. Stories remain her constant. Alyssa received her bachelor’s in English/Creative Writing from Berry College and her master's in Creative Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. Alyssa is represented by Amber Caraveo at Skylark Literary. Her debut The Eleventh Trade – "a powerful story of love, loss, friendship and hope, centered around Sami, a young refugee from Afghanistan now building a new life with his grandfather in Boston" – will be published Fall 2018 by Macmillan (U.S.) and HotKey (U.K.).

A Year Abroad: Scrapbook Highlights

Aug 9, 2015

Among other things, my family has given me the Hoarder Gene. Thus whenever I am traveling, I collect scraps (tickets, maps, miscellany) to store away forever. After I studied abroad in 2012, I wound up with a whole box of various bits and pieces, and little idea what to do with them. In spring of 2014, as I neared the last six months of my time in Bath, England, I happened upon a charming photo album on sale at Paperchase. In retrospect, I think it’s actually meant to be a wedding album, but at the time I had two thoughts:...

100 Questions for Character Couples

Aug 6, 2015

My sister, the writer/illustrator for The Silver Eye, put together a list of questions to ask her character couples. I’ve tidied them up, added a few of my own, and present them now for your brainstorming usage! Character chemistry is one of the most important elements in a story. These questions can help you flesh out your couple’s/couples’ relationship(s), find some hidden details to use in your tale, and discover more about your characters in the process. Though the list is written in the past tense, I’ve found it really helpful for planning upcoming scenes and matchmaking possibilities. Enjoy! Basic Information What...

Graduating BSU + Valedictorian Speech

Jul 15, 2015

About a month ago, I had an email from my course leader for the MA Writing for Young People, Julia Green. She told me that I had been selected as valedictorian, and asked if I would be able to make it back across the Pond for graduation. I had composed a very gracious reply that basically said I couldn’t possibly afford it, but before I hit send I walked downstairs to tell my mom, figuring she would probably be pretty excited. Our conversation: Me: I had an email from Julia Green. Mom: [on phone texting] Mhm. Me: She said I’m...

The Launch Party: On Agents, Publishers, and Community

May 13, 2015

Last July, I volunteered to co-edit the Bath Spa University MA Writing for Young People anthology with Irulan Horner. I don’t think either of us realized quite how much work we’d be doing, though we were warned. Over the last ten/eleven months, I’ve worked from afar extensively with our mail-out team, developed a website and social media strategy with Lindsay Schiro, and edited, edited, edited the little book that became Beautiful Lies. (Also, I’m going to humbly approach the #bragtable and mention that the title was my idea – based on a David Almond quote – and I am very...

Beautiful Lies Anthology Graphics

May 8, 2015

As many of you probably know, for the past ten months I’ve been co-editing for Bath Spa University’s anthology, Beautiful Lies. Nineteen writers, nineteen stories for young people. We launch in London on 12 May, and while you’re reading this I’ll be landing in England. It’s exciting times! One of the things I love to do is creating quote graphics. It’s a fun design exercise and an exciting way to visually explore creative writing. So when I sat down with Lindsay Schiro to brainstorm ideas for our social media team, I suggested we take a page from publishers’ social media–erm–books. Often publishers will post...

Open Letter to My Autoimmune System

Apr 12, 2015

Dear Body, Well, here we are again, on the night before everything starts to roll. You remember last time, yeah? We were seventeen and they’d taken the bloodwork and there was a crazy Mississippi storm that night. Remember how we curled over and cried a little and then wrote some poetry? Yeah, it sucked – the poetry, and the night. I’m not mad at you. I’m not breaking up with you. Partially because I can’t since, let’s be honest, you are me and I’m just personifying you to make sense of something that can’t be made sense of. (more…)

5 Gifts for Young Writers

Mar 12, 2015

Young writers are awesome. Talking to them makes me excited all over again about my projects — and theirs! If you want to encourage a young writer in your life, bribery gifts are always appreciated. These can be great for birthdays, Christmas, or even something like CampNaNoWriMo(*), which just so happens to be around the corner. Here’s a wishlist to help you celebrate the young (and average-aged) writer(s) in your life: Pilot Varsity pack on Amazon 1. Fancy Pens There’s nothing quite like having fancy pens, especially fancy colorful pens. Pilot Varsity offers an assortment of disposable fountain pens that won’t break the...

Let Me Be Broken

Mar 10, 2015

I originally wrote this for Nearly Christian, after reading the challenging post Easy Like Sunday Morning. I’ve been sitting on it for a few months now, but as NC hasn’t updated recently I figured I would go ahead and share it here. On that cold fall night, I decided enough was enough. It was time to have it out with God. I had just seen a Christian film that touched on grief and emphasized healing. The message (like most Christian media) was uplifting, but I left feeling deeply disturbed. Have you ever noticed that in Christian fiction, everyone gets their...

10 Writing Resources: Drafting

Jan 22, 2015

My 10 Writing Resources: Characters was the beginning of a series where I compile some of my favorite creative writing links from around the web. Here I present the second post of the series: 10 writing resources I like to keep in mind while I’m drafting. From tools to keep your creativity churning to the basic elements of dialogue and POV, these links will help you get through your first draft. Enjoy! 1. The What If: A List Method for Getting Unstuck It’s inevitable that at some point in the writing process, we’re going to get stuck. Even for...

Best Book Discoveries of 2014

Jan 3, 2015

I’ve completed my reading goal for the year! I set my goal on Goodreads back on January 1, 2014. This year I shot for 70 books, which I wrapped up in a mad rush during the last two weeks of the year. One interesting thing I’ve discovered since finishing my undergraduate (with all the general education and other random classes attached) is that I willingly read a lot more non-fiction than I used to. Case in point: In 2012 out of my 75 books, 4 were “for fun” non-fiction. This year, I’m split even at 35/35. I think it’s a...