Camille Griep

Camille Griep lives just north of Seattle with her partner, Adam, and their dog Dutch(ess). Born in Billings, Montana, she moved to Southern California to attend Claremont McKenna College, graduating with a dual degree in Biology and Literature.

She has since sold short fiction and creative nonfiction to dozens of online and print magazines. She is the editor of Easy Street and is a senior editor at The Lascaux Review. She is a 2012 graduate of Viable Paradise, a residential workshop for speculative fiction novelists.

Griep's first novel is Letters to Zell.

From her Q & A with G.G. Silverman:

GGS: Camille, please tell everyone what Letters to Zell is about, and what inspired you to write it.

CG: Thanks so much for having me here! I so appreciate having the chance to talk writing with you and introduce my very first novel.

At its core, Letters to Zell is the story of three women navigating the expectations of early to mid adulthood. When their mutual friend Zell (Rapunzel) moves away to chase her dream of opening a unicorn preserve, the remaining three princesses grapple with their own hopes and dreams.

Letters to Zell is a project born of a confluence of several events, but mostly my own self-examination. After I took some time off work to write full time, I grappled a lot with expectations. People said the strangest things. Choosing to be childless was a recipe for comments when I was working, but choosing to be childless and working as an artist seemed, for some, to be the epitome of self-indulgence. And I wondered how many other women dealt with those sorts of attitudes on an ongoing basis.

I had expectations for myself, too. What kind of woman would I turn into if I traded my Coach handbags for canvas totes? What kind of partner would I be not contributing to the household income for a few years – should I cook and clean and shop and feel guilty for doing those things while writing and feel guilty while writing for not doing those things.

I also had a lot of people tell me they’d like to...[read on]

Visit Camille Griep's website.

The Page 69 Test: Letters to Zell.

Coffee with a Canine: Camille Griep and Dutchess Marie Siefker-Griep.

--Marshal Zeringue