Writer Spotlight: Michelle Traven

Off the train in the Czech Republic, an Orphaned Grandfather in Mexico City, the best mud pie in Colorado, and getting "the words just right": Michelle Traven

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet world traveler, photographer and librarian, Michelle Traven.

I thought I found some travel photos you’d taken in various European countries, but now I can’t find them again. Was I delusional, or did you travel to France and Italy?

Ireland

Many years ago, I lived, wrote, and guest taught K-12 in Switzerland for two years while my husband had a temporary position at a local university. I also lived in Berlin once upon a time. My itchy feet have taken me around Europe and North America, and one time even hopped a ride on a train through the Czech Republic.

My Eurail pass wasn’t valid in the recently established country, and the very generous yet stern Czech ticket officer repeatedly threatened to throw me off the train at the next station, but then very carefully avoided my train car at every stop during what was a very long overnight journey to Austria.

In your world travels, what places did you like best? Which places would you pass up this time?

I wouldn’t pass on any place. The world is full of wonderful sights and wonderful people.

You seem to be an excellent nature photographer, judging from some of the compositions you posted on social media. Is photography a passion, or are you just gifted at it?

Lake Superior at sunset

Thank you for your kind words! I attribute any seeming photographic talent to modern technology and these amazing computers that fit in our pockets.

 

One of your “handles” includes CADL. Are you employed or affiliated with the Capital Area District Library?

Literacy, education, and librarianship are some of my passions. There are many-worlds in these magical objects we call books. I worked for the fantastic organization that is the Capital Area District Library for many years before returning to school to earn my teaching certification in the hopes of eventually managing my own school school library.

Are you teaching now?  What subject?

I recently was hired as the librarian at Red Cedar Elementary School in East Lansing and feel as if I won the job lottery.

What’s your favorite age of student, and why?

All kids, both young and only young-at-heart, are great to work with.

Describe your life growing up. Who or what influenced you to become a writer?

My very large maternal family was full of storytellers. My grandfather told tales of surviving the streets of Mexico City as an orphan, my grandmother concocted romantic tales (later discovered to be just about complete fiction) about how they had met. As a child I loved to hide in closets where the darkness enabled me to fully enter the imaginary worlds my mind conjured. In other words, I was born this way.

Where did you grow up? What do you remember about your early years?

Shadow Mountain Reservoir, Colorado

 

I grew up in Colorado and Texas. I owned and operated Colorado’s best mud pie bakery. Most of my customers were imaginary and every single one of them loved my mud pies. I also liked to run in circles along the chain-link fence in my mama’s backyard in Texas and to search for cicadas and praying mantises and to try and catch lizards by their tails (fortunately mostly unsuccessfully).

What were some of your favorite books? What are you reading now?

Hop on Pop was a childhood favorite and remains a go-to book when trying to capture the attention of a younger audience. All folk tales are favorites. I always love seeing these stories reimagined by new writers and illustrators.

Another photo from a pre-pandemic trip to Ireland

Currently I am reading Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake, and looking forward to reading Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff.

What are you working on right now? 

Right now, I am working on a coming-of-age/thriller young adult novel loosely based on my own experiences as a high school scholarship student at a prestigious East Coast boarding school, with a little bit of fictional, murder-mystery thriller plot thrown in for some excitement.

What works have you put away in a drawer? What did you learn from writing them?

I have many short stories, poems, a middle grade and YA novel in a drawer. My life is very full, so my present attempts at publishing are on a burner not at the back, but also in a drawer.

Writing is a lifelong endeavor to get the words just right, but always falling just a little bit short of what is imagined. I am a firm believer in the transformative power of a good edit, so consider all my works-in-a-drawer little seeds that someday might prove to be mighty oaks.

How did you find SCBWI? How did you find LAST?

 

I found SCBWI when researching organizations that support writers of children’s literature, and it has been a fantastic resource of many things including a map to the Lansing Area Shop Talks, which are a great way to network, talk about the writing life, and enjoy the company of other creators.