The Author
About Regina Elaine
Writer. Reader. Keeper of quiet stories.
My Story
How I Became a Writer
I didn't set out to be a writer. I set out to be a reader — and writing was simply what happened when the books ran out and I still had something left to feel.
I grew up in a house full of noise and very few books, which made the ones I found feel like contraband. I read under the covers with a flashlight. I read during church. I read when I was supposed to be doing anything else. Stories were the first place I ever felt completely at home.
I started writing seriously in my late twenties, after a season of life that left me with more questions than answers. Fiction became the way I worked through them — not to resolve them, but to sit with them long enough to understand their shape.
Why I Write
The Question Behind Every Book
I write because I am endlessly curious about the gap between what people say and what they mean — between the life someone is living and the life they imagined for themselves. My books live in that gap. They ask: what do we owe each other? What do we owe ourselves? And what happens when those two things are in conflict?
"Fiction is the only place I know where you can be completely honest about something that never happened."
What Moves Me
Inspirations
Writers
Marilynne Robinson, Kazuo Ishiguro, Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, and anyone who makes the ordinary feel sacred.
Places
Old libraries, train stations at dusk, the particular silence of a house after everyone has left.
Moments
Overheard conversations. Letters never sent. The look on someone's face when they think no one is watching.
Music
Anything slow enough to think to — Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, late-night jazz, and the occasional Joni Mitchell spiral.
A Few Things
You Might Not Know About Me
I keep a notebook by my bed and have filled over forty of them. I've never gone back to read a single one.
I write every first draft by hand. My second drafts are where the laptop comes in.
I've lived in seven cities and set stories in none of them — I prefer invented geography.
My pen name, Regina Elaine, comes from my two grandmothers. Neither of them ever read fiction. They would have found this very funny.
Want to Stay in Touch?
I send occasional letters to my readers — personal notes, early news, and things that don't make it onto the page. No schedule, no spam. Just words when I have something worth saying.
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