Mandy Mikulencak & The Last Suppers May 21, 2018

Writer of the Year nominee Mandy Mikulencak lives outside Durango but grew up in Texas. She has set one published novel, The Last Suppers, in Louisiana and the next one, due out next year, is set in Mississippi. Her first book was a gritty young adult novel set in Durango called Burn Girl, a title that was honored with a 2016 Westchester Fiction Award. Mandy Mikulencak has been a writer her entire working life. First, as a journalist and then as an editor and PR specialist for two national nonprofits and a United Nations agency. The shift into fiction had an unusual beginning at a writer’s retreat. At first, as a non-fiction writer, she didn’t think she wanted to add fiction to her daily schedule, too, but then discovered the freedom it offered. Mandy is drawn to “real life" and "tough subjects” and likes stories that examine, in her words, the dichotomy of human spirit. She is drawn to characters with multiple dimensions, secrets, and characters who are “fairly broken.”