The Haystack

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The Haystack

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The Haystack

Pritchett Visits the Farm

Pritchett+Visits+the+Farm+

By Isabelle Olson

Author Laura Pritchett began her visit to Wheat Ridge High School on the sidelines, looking at the many faces that fill the sea of students in front of her.

Debbie Livingston speaks of her accomplishments, including a PhD from Purdue University, and Pritchett blushes as the praise emanates from the librarian’s mouth. When Pritchett is announced, she takes her place in front of audience of teens and smiles, her bright blue eyes seeming to do the same.
Right off the bat she speaks of her undying love for writing. Ever since she was a little girl, Pritchett knew she wanted to write and create stories. In high school, she fell in love with literature, and from there she realized that she wanted to turn that love into a career.
Her first novel, Dry Roots, came out in 1999 and tells the story of a young brother and sister struggling through a life of abuse on a Colorado farm. It’s a coming-of-age story that really reflects the reality of growing up in that situation. And that’s exactly Pritchett’s passion. She enjoys writing about difficult situations that cause emotions and human nature to be shown.
Another of Pritchett’s biggest stories, and one of her most popular, is called Sky Bridge which is about a young girl who has a baby and leaves it with her sister, who is already doing all she can to take care of the family. Pritchett’s next novel to come out is Red Lighting, a sequel to Sky Bridge and tells of years after the sister leaves her baby when she returns and tries to make amends.
Her more recent creation is Stars Go Blue, which is a heart wrencher about a man with alzheimers who hunts down his daughter’s killer who was just released from prison. It was published in 2014. Fiction is not all that Pritchett writes about. She also has a strong passion for preservation and taking care of the environment. To express this, she has written books about bears and articles about conservation. She is a mother as well as a writer, and she says that she tries to teach her kids how to take care of the environment. For example, she takes them dumpster diving. It gives them experience in recycling and shows them that not all things have to go to waste, which is a fundamental belief according to Pritchett. “And they have a blast,” she said.
When asked what the biggest struggles of writing are, Pritchett said there are two parts, emotional and practical. The emotional part is that you have to be open and raw, go out on a limb and it use a lot of honesty when talking about the human condition . The practical part is that writing is a hard career to make a substantial living on.
Her advice to aspiring writers is to find a career that gives you enough to do the writing you want and also gives you a chance at a fortifying career that helps you create the life you want. “It takes practice to become a great writer. No one is born a brilliant writer,” Pritchett says as she looks around at our faces.
Pritchett likes to evoke emotions with characters to express true human nature to her readers. She is an author who reflects the trueness of life, and to her that is the most important thing writing can do.

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