A. Crossley Spencer is an author, freelance writer, creative writing instructor and co-founder of Tigermoth Creative. Her novel,The Promise of Water, is represented by Elizabeth Copps of the Maria Carvainis Agency and won the 2016 Caledonia Novel Prize, an international award based in Edinburgh.
The book was also named runner-up in the Whidbey Emerging Writers Contest by the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, finalist in the 2014 Great Novel Contest (Columbus Creative Cooperative), and semi-finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Award. Author Richard Adams Carey calls the novel, “as graceful as it is powerful — a bracing and heart-breaking plunge into the mystery of identity, the boundlessness of love.”
Andrea’s short fiction has earned nods from Ruminate Magazine (semifinalist for the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize), New Millennium Writers (Honorable Mention) and Cumberland River Review. NYC’s Gotham Writer’s Workshop named Andrea the 2014 Very Short Story Contest winner for her ten-word story “All there was.” Her story, “The Scent of Rain on Dry Earth,” was featured in Chautauqua Journal.
In addition to her fiction writing, Andrea specializes in marketing, strategic communication, storytelling, and messaging as Director of Creative Writing for Tigermoth Creative. Her client list has spanned healthcare, retail, small business, nonprofits, fundraising and higher education. For eleven years, she was the lead copywriter and speechwriter for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she crafted stories about the inspiring people who were the fabric of her community. Her work has earned recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the International Academy of Visual Arts (Communicator Award of Distinction), the Communicator Awards (Excellence Awards and an Award of Distinction), and the National School Public Relations Awards (Golden Achievement Award for Marketing & Engagement).
Andrea is currently writing short fiction pieces and working on her second novel, Cloudspotting. Grounded by the persistent memory of a decade-old school shooting, the story captures two women: Frantic, 45-year-old Alex, whose sense of humor keeps her afloat amid a string of life challenges, and Skylar, the daughter who wonders why her life was spared and seems only to find solace in the clouds — an odd form of escapism that even her mother eventually can’t resist.
Andrea lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from High Point University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and an MFA in fiction from Southern New Hampshire University.
“A natural storyteller whose prose is as exquisite as the landscape she portrays.” Lovely review by @dlesbecquets – author of #BreakingWild
— A. Crossley Spencer (@CrossleySpencer) March 9, 2016
