Spotlight on 12 Mature Writers

I’ve heard recently that writing has become a lost art. In our fast-paced, digital world, pundits say, so much day-to-day communication takes place online via email, social media, snap-chatting and texting, that no one knows how to communicate clearly, anymore, through the written word.

Not so. I’m a member of an online blogging community that loves to write. We wake up in the morning, itching to take cursor to monitor and reach out to our audience—the readers we know and love. But what if we had even more to offer them? What if we had a book or two to publicize, to put on our sidebar and link it to Amazon? Just speaking for myself, it would be a dream come true!

But I haven’t written a book, despite my life long yearning to do so. Life has been full of so many other things that have been too urgent and immediate, that have taken every thing I had, all my energy and determination.

So who does actually accomplish this? Who do you know that has taken that long road of lonely, solitary hours spent in front of a computer, without the benefit of conversation or the buzz of a newly posted blog?

I am not disparaging social situations—it’s what connects and nourishes us, but I am head over heels over the accomplishments of writers who have gone the distance and published a book. I especially admire mature, older writers who have put aside their golf carts and travel plans and are spending their retirement pursuing their dreams of writing.

As a way to pay homage to these very special people, I’ve put together a list of writers—those who are 50 and over, who have published a book later in life. They are listed alphabetically in order of first name, and linked to their website, if they have one:

Angie Oakley, Treading Water
Sixteen year-old Lucy Connelly is haunted by a suicide she witnesses while rowing on the Brisbane River. It compounds the despair she has battled since her parents’ ugly divorce ten years earlier.
Available on Amazon. (Also published, The Porcelain House)

Ashton Applewhite, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people useless. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite believed them too—until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does.(Available on Amazon)

Fred First, Slow Road Home-A Blue Ridge Book of Days
(Available from Goose Creek Press, online from Fred’s website)
(Also published, What We Hold in Our Hands-A Slow Road Reader)

Harry Leslie Smith, Harry’s Last Stand
How the World My Generation Built is Falling Down
(Available on Amazon)

Lynne Spreen, Dakota Blues
In this award-winning debut novel, workaholic Karen Grace is fired after attending her mother’s funeral in her Midwestern hometown. Now Karen is fifteen hundred miles from home, just one more middle-aged worker out of a job in a tough economy.
(Available on Amazon)
(Also published, Middle-Aged Crazy: Short Stories of Midlife and Beyond)

Marian Knapp, Aging in Places: Reflective Preparation for the Future
(Available on Amazon)

Mallory Neeve Wilkins, Hot Walker-Life on the Fast Track
Sports crime romance novel. Murder trial shocks Toronto community as 1960s marked the rise of a new generation,
(Available on Amazon))

Margaret Atwood, The Heart Goes Last
Imagining a world where citizens take turns as prisoners and jailers, the prophetic Margaret Atwood delivers a hilarious yet harrowing tale about liberty, power, and the irrepressibility of the human appetite.
(Available on Amazon)

Michael Madrone, It Doesn’t Have to Hurt So Much
Life hurts. The young, the old, everyone suffers. Sometimes we find relief, but sometimes we don’t. When that happens is there any hope? One man’s quest to answer this question.(Available on Amazon)

Murr Brewster, Trousering Your Weasel
Murrmade productions (Available on her website below)

Peter Galvin, That Which Lies Beneath – A collection of 11 Ghost Stories
(Available on his website)

Tom Sightings, You Only Retire Once
A Baby Boomer Looks at Health, Finance, Retirement, Grown-Up Children … and How Time Flies
(Available on Amazon)

This is not a complete list, by any means. I hope to add to it as I read and hear about more writers who are older.

Please let me know about writers who fit this criteria—writers who are a little older, who have published a book or two, and I will add them to this list for future articles.