Cinthia Ritchie’s first novel sold to Grand Central Books

This great news just in: Alaska writer and UAA MFA grad Cinthia Ritchie has sold her first novel to Grand Central Publishing, part of the Hachette Book Group USA. Grand Central, formerly Time Warner Books, puts out 275 titles a year, including works by Nicholas Sparks, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Jon Stewart.

This has been quite a year for Ritchie, who also won the grand prize over at Memoir (and) for her essay “Pig Road.” I haven’t put my hands on a physical copy of the journal yet, but I was thrilled to see Cinthia’s name in big white type on the cover in an ad on page 134 of this month’s Poets & Writer’s.

Cinthia has written several posts for us here at 49w; you might recall her post about “Me and the Cats Writing” or her participation in a series of candid Mother’s Day conversations.

You can find her work all over the internet — including a short story called “Hunting” at oncewritten.com, poetry at Slow Trains and 42 opus, a piece about one of her first Alaska hikes (in the 1980s), published in the New York Times in 2005. Just a sampling, to show how prolifically and in how many diverse genres this hardworking, single mom has been writing. She’s also won a whole slew of literary prizes, as well as a nomination for the 2006 Pushcart Prize. Congratulations to her for her well-earned success.