Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marcie Rendon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marcie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

In the early 90s I made the decision to make a living as a writer. That meant taking any and all paying writing jobs – from community journalism to $10 poetry submissions to writing articles and profiles for non-profits, the occassional national magazine – you name it, i wrote it. I have never had the light or heat shut off and there was always food but if you ask my children if it was a living they would laugh at you.

Marcie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Today, I am the author of the Cash Blackbear crime novels, published by Soho Press. There are currently three novels on the market, Murder on the Red River, Girl Gone Missing and Sinister Graves. All three have either won awards or been finalists for awards. The fourth, untitled novel, will be published at the end of 2024 or spring 2025. I also continue to write poetry and will have my first book of poetry published in the spring of 2024 by the University of MInnesota Press – it is titled Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millinneum. As a playwright, my recent work – Say Their Names – will be part of Out Of Hand Theater’s Equitable Dinners shows in 2024. This performan/multi-media piece focuses on the issue of #mmiw (missing and murdered indian women.) While I have writing since I learned how to string words together, it wasn’t until I was in my mid-thirties that I made the decision to pursue writing as a full-time career. The first Cash Blackbear novel spent 5 years being rejected by agents and publishers before finding a home.
I think mostly I want people to know that I love writing, love creating story – creating mirrors for Native people and women – and that I believe that art is healing – that as long as we are creating we can’t be about destroying.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My artist statement: We are kept in their mindset as “vanished peoples.” Or as workers, not creators… What does this erasing of individual identity do to us? Can you believe you exist if you look in a mirror and see no reflection? What happens when one group controls the mirror market?

As Native people, we have known that in order to survive we had to create, re-create, produce, re-produce. The effect of the denial of our existence is that many of us have become invisible…the systematic disruption of our families by the removal of our children was effective for silencing our voices.

However, not everyone can still that desire, that up-welling inside that says sing, write, draw, move, be… we can sing our hearts out, tell our stories, paint our visions…we are in a position to create a more human reality…in order to live we have to make our own mirrors.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me to be able to create storylines and characters that readers can recognize and identify with is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a writer. When I do a reading of my work and readers will ask how my main character Cash Blackbear is doing in college, or has she stopped smoking and/or drinking yet – it makes me realize that in their minds and hearts Cash has become real for them. This is the magic of story-creating, story-telling – people make friends and engage in a worldviews outside of themselves and their everyday life. I also love watching people get excited about the story, the people in the story – when my characters come alive so do the readers!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marcierendon.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcierendon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarcieRendonMN
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcierendon/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcieRendon

Image Credits
Billboard: Photo by Anna Cardon, billboard by American Indian Community Housing Organization, Duluth, MN