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M. Molly Backes

M. Molly Backes is an exciting new talent in the world of young adult novels. After graduating from Grinnell College in Iowa, she moved to New Mexico, where she taught middle school and got 150 of her students to write novels for National Novel Writing Month. She now lives in Chicago, where she works at StoryStudio, Chicago's center for writing and the related arts.


“None of us is delicate enough to touch anyone else without hurting them a little bit.”
M. Molly Backes
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“The point of freewriting is to get past the voice inside your head that tells you your ideas aren't good enough, your words aren't good enough, you're no writer and so forth.”
M. Molly Backes
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“If you are here because you think writing will always be fun, you're in for a disappointment. Writing -- real writing -- is among the most difficult work you will ever face in your life. The irony is that the harder you work at it, the harder it gets.”
M. Molly Backes
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“If you're not scared when you are writing you're not working hard enough. You'll be afraid but you have to keep going.”
M. Molly Backes
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“I've never felt a connection like this with anyone else... I don't even know how to explain it. I feel like I already knew you before I met you, and the first time I saw you, the first time I talked to you, was incidental, because the connection was already there --.”
M. Molly Backes
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“It's your writing you guys. Follow it wherever it takes you. All you need to do is tell your truth.”
M. Molly Backes
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