Professional Experience
Alissa fell in love with writing in the second grade, when Mrs. Anderson guided the class through the process of writing and making books. In sixth grade, her life plan included becoming an author and marrying rich in case her books didn’t sell. In high school, Alissa took every writing class she could until she reached college and fell for the idea that a writer couldn’t earn a living.
Happenstance led her to work as an account executive in graphic design and marketing in Minneapolis. As a liaison between the client and the creative team, she oversaw communications projects for a major big box retailer, including community relations campaigns and a national magazine for university and college students. The experience taught her that how you say something is just as important as what you say.
Still, writing remained unfinished business. Driven by the sense that something was missing, Alissa found her way to the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and a course based on Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. With a newfound sense of permission to write whether it paid the bills or not, she pursued one class after another, at the Loft and at the University of Minnesota. Finally, she set her sights on a Masters of Fine Arts, which she earned from Western Connecticut State University in 2010 and graduated with distinction.
Relocating from Minnesota to Colorado, Alissa went on to become associate editor of the Crested Butte News from 2011 to 2017, and was a regular contributor to Wilderness News for many years. Her travel and adventure writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and Dirt Rag Magazine, and her essays and short stories have appeared in The Master’s Review, Mountain Gazette, and Aifé Literary Magazine among other publications.
In 2012, she founded a coaching business and for six years helped writers show up at the page and create meaningful stories through a blog, videos, workshops, courses and one-on-one coaching programs. She’s also taught writing through Western Colorado University, Western Connecticut State University, and writing organizations such as the Writing the Rockies Annual Conference and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.
Alissa currently works as a Communications Director for the State of Colorado and is seeking representation for her novel, The Undoing of Harriet Brickman.