Introducing Renée Anduze: Novelist, Editor, and Friend

Greetings, readers. Like me, do you love reading historical fiction? And/or are you a writer who needs a good editor? Today I want to introduce you to a local writer friend of mine, Renée Anduze, author and editor. At the end of this post, I’ll tell you how we met and how we write together today.

Renee’s debut novel

Take a Left at Tomorrow is Renée’s heart-rending debut novel, a love story set during the Vietnam War.

Here’s my Amazon review.

While this story is set during the viscerally turbulent 1960s, its themes are relevant today, including the need to maintain an independent, caring spirit during a crisis. This compelling story invites us into the hearts of the main characters as they overcome engulfing fears, as much as experience deep joys of love. As I read each chapter, my empathy for them grew as they handled dire uncertainty, figured out ways to adapt, and struggled with devastating loss. We see them mature because of it all. Cheers to Anduze and her dedication in bringing this poignant story to life! Be prepared to feel its depth of wisdom.

To read more about it, visit her website’s page about the book here.

About Renée Anduze

Renée holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University and a BA in English from Rollins College (summa cum laude). She has worked as a professional writer and editor for nearly 20 years—five of them at Rollins College. Her work has appeared in national magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and online. She has won several writing awards, including three Royal Palm Literary Awards. Her poetry is published in Rollins Book of Verse 1885–2010. Renée has taught and tutored upper-level English and participated in Bread Loaf and many other major workshop conferences. She is a member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Florida Writers Association, Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society, and Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society.

Though Renée currently lives in Central Florida, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The lakes, pines, iron mines, and people there have clung to her heart throughout her life, forever defining her as a girl from the north country. Memories of sky-blue waters and warbling loons still stir her creative spirit.

~ Source: the About page at her website: https://reneeanduze.com:

How I met Renée

Both of us earned our B.A. degrees in English Literature from what used to be named the Rollins College Hamilton Holt School, an evening degree program. Both of us were what’s called non-traditional students. That means we were working adults who returned to college (or began it) because we valued higher education, especially a liberal arts curriculum that offered a major in English and highlighted writing. Although we graduated about a decade apart, we enjoyed the same high academic standards at Rollins. We both had poems published in Rollins Book of Verse 1885–2010.

Years later, we met in person at the Rollins Literary Festival called Winter With the Writers. Unfortunately, and very distressingly to many of us, that program was discontinued a few years ago, but what endures are the many writers who attended and financially supported that festival over the more than forty (40) years it was offered. The festival directors brought in many wonderful writers and poets, including Barry Lopez and Susan Orlean, two of many who made a special impact on me. The guest authors read their work and held master classes with students, alumni, and interested folks in the community. Those classes fed me intellectually and emotionally, especially during the years 2007 – 2017 while I focused on writing what became Undertow. 

W.H.A.T.

Today, Renée joins me on a regular basis for an hour of silently working on our own writing projects. I named this W.H.A.T., which stands for “writing here alone together.” We started meeting before COVID hit, then resumed our time together last year. After an hour of writing, we go out to lunch. About four of us do this together now. You may have read my essay about W.H.A.T. that’s in my second book, From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life. The book has about 33 essays about writing, 25 of my poems, a few of my short-short stories featuring a character named Melanie Craven, and some memoir pieces.

If you’re a writer, I urge you to keep nurturing valuable writerly connections like the one I’m lucky to have with Renée.

Thanks for reading!

Your writer on the wing,

Charlene

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