Human Stories BY HEATHER HAMILTON-POST
“My father couldn’t read, and I would tell him stories I made up. I was always writing, and in junior high school, my parents bought me a typewriter,” explains Idaho writer Patricia Marcantonio. “So I was always sending stuff out, and after I got married, I wrote my first novel. It was horrible,” she says, laughing.
Growing up, Marantonio was shy– she says she only had one friend, whom she remains friends with today–and liked to read, which made her kind of a target for bullies. She pauses, speculating, “and maybe that’s where some Photo by Jessica Garcia of these books came out of. In “It’s very hard work. And I love it. It’s the end, it is just challenging–to come up with stories, your imagination, and deal with the language and find you’re trying to the right words to say what you mean.” tell a story about different people and what they go through, and hopefully, you’ll get a few readers 30
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that know what that feels like. I love characters that have wounds. When they go on their journey through your novels and they come out the other side, changed for better or worse. I like that about humanity. I think we’re all just writing about humanity, the damages and wounds, and how we come out of that,” she says. Marcantonio’s work, although varied, is filled with strong, complex characters who navigate the world with gusto, bravery, and heart and it is easy to see why the writer, who has long been an active part of Idaho’s literary scene, is flourishing. The recent recipient of an Alexa Rose Foundation grant, Marcantonio produced and directed her original play, Tears for Llorona, at the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho, later adapting it for Radio Boise. She’s written short films, children’s books, courtroom dramas, mystery series, screenplays and probably more–Marcantonio says she is always up for a challenge and hopes to write a science fiction novel eventually. She’s also curated anthologies and collaborated on various projects throughout her career.
“I have a desk full of story ideas that I’ll probably never get to. When I worked as a reporter, I’d always come back with two story ideas. You always have to ask what’s right, or what if this happened? I love to tell
