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Q&A with Upper School English Teacher Molly Olguín
Bush Upper School English Teacher Molly Olguín recently won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. The prestigious award means that her short story collection, The Sea Gives Up the Dead, will be published by Red Hen Press in early 2025. The Bush School spoke to Molly about her win, writing, and balancing teaching at Bush and writing for yourself.
Congratulations on receiving the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction! Can you tell me more about how that came about?
Thank you! The Grace Paley Prize is awarded by the AWP, which is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Last February, I went to the AWP conference to present about my podcast. At the conference I went to a bunch of awesome readings of short story collections and I thought, you know what, I have a short story collection, I should send it to their press. So I did (laughs).
What are the next steps for getting it published?
It should be published with Red Hen Press in spring of 2025. Weirdly, there’s a lot to do. I have to edit the manuscript for artistic changes, and then regular proofreading (and) I have final say on the artistic side and the tiny details. I have to reach out to various people to give me a blurb. I have to write a summary of the book for when people talk about it in reviews. I also have to start coming up with cover ideas, so I can pitch them to the press.
What is the collection about?
It’s called The Sea Gives Up the Dead. It’s a collection of short stories that really hop between different genres. Some are historical fiction, some are science fiction, some are fantasy, but they are all linked by theme. They are all about family, queerness, and death. The stories are all set in San Pedro, California where I grew up. A lot of them have a family story at their root, or are magical or strange versions of family stories I grew up with.
What do you love about writing? What is your process and what do you draw from?
I’m going to give you a Franz Kafka quote, he said, “Fiction needs to be an ax for the frozen sea within me.” I don’t know if everyone has a frozen sea within them, but I feel like I do! What I love about reading and writing is it’s a way to hack into the ice and get the water flowing a little bit. I really like a lot of different genres. In the last couple years I’ve also worked on a science fiction thriller audio drama, which was my podcast, and I also have written historical fiction screenplays.
How do you balance teaching at Bush and writing for yourself?
It’s really hard! Obviously I get a lot done during the summer, but during the year I try to keep Saturday as my sacred writing day, and Sunday for lesson planning.
What about your writing has translated into your teaching at Bush?
I bring it in all the time. Right now I’m teaching Literature of Monstrosity and Short Fiction. With short fiction, it’s like a one-to-one, I’m thinking about craft and talking about the craft with my students. The stuff that obsesses me shows up in my teaching because that is what I’m obsessed about as a teacher, too. I also always make a point to teach students about how the publication process works. I tell them that I want them to make good art, and this could go beyond the class.
The Bush School is an independent, coeducational day school located in Seattle, WA enrolling 735 students in grades K–12. The mission of The Bush School is to spark in students of diverse backgrounds and talents a passion for learning, accomplishment, and contribution to their communities
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