Graduate student Grant Maierhofer”s reality is different than most other students” at the University of Idaho.
At the age of 25, Maierhofer, who was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has already published two novels and is currently pursuing an MFA in fiction.
Maierhofer said he never realized his passion for writing during his teenage years, but once he discovered his penchant for prose it was a passion he would never let go.
Alex Brizee | Rawr
Grant Maierhofer recently moved to Idaho to be a part of the University of Idaho”s MFA fiction program.
Maierhofer said when he was young, he used writing as a way to better process and understand the world around him.
“Writing was a process for difficult situations,” he said. “An emotional process used to deal with what was going on around me.”
In addition to writing serving as an emotional process, Maierhofer said as his practice grew he realized he also had a strong interest in language, an interest which prompted him to graduate Eau Claire Cum Laude with a Bachelor”s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin.
Maierhofer, who is currently pursuing an MFA in fiction writing while serving as a teaching assistant and tutor for UI English classes, said it was the faculty that ultimately drew him to the university.
Kim Barnes, published author and UI faculty member, said the university”s MFA fiction faculty fought hard to get Maierhofer into the program.
“Grant”s passion and dedication, along with his obvious writing talent, are the reasons we worked so hard to recruit him,” Barnes said.
Although he now has both school work and teaching classes to focus on, Maierhofer said he does not plan to slow down any time soon.
“Writing is always something I”m worried about,” he said. “It”s something that”s always on my mind.”
Maierhofer said he not only plans on continuing to write, but to also become a teacher once he completes his graduate degree.
“I quite enjoy teaching because it keeps me on my toes, keeps me always thinking of new ways to write,” Maierhofer said.
Maierhofer”s two novels, “The Persistence of Crows” and “Postures” are works of literary nonfiction and satire.
Maierhofer, who was an undergraduate when he published “The Persistence of Crows,” said he felt the novel showed his dedication to writing as he worked on it while also going to school.
Although “Postures” followed closely after “The Persistence of Crows,” Maierhofer said his second novel did not get the kind of publicity he was expecting.
Maierhofer said the novel, a satire which centers around a hopeful young artist living in Chicago, served as an obstacle he had to overcome as a young writer.
“Sometimes your work isn”t as widely accepted as you were hoping for,” he said. “But you have to accept the challenge and keep writing.”
Maierhofer said he continued to write and revise “Postures” until it was published, right after he moved to Idaho.
In addition to two novels, Maierhofer has published a collection of stories, “Marcel.”
Mark Cronin, the publisher for the collection, said the level or appreciation Maierhofer”s publishers and teachers have for him shows his persistence and passion for writing.
“Grant has been a pretty big influence on me,” Cronin said. “Not just in my creative life, but personally as well.”
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected]