Chila Woychik, author and editor

As part of my mission on this blog site, I like to introduce prospective readers to authors they may not yet know about. So now I'd like you to meet Chila Woychik.

 Of French & German heritage, German-born Chila has lived in the Midwest most of her adult life. She has published widely, with essays in Cimarron, Passages North, Portland Review, and many other esteemed journals. 

Chila's books include the essay collection, Singing The Land: A Rural Chronology, published in 2020 by Shanti Arts of Maine. 

https://www.amazon.com/Singing-Land-Chronology-Chila-Woychik/dp/1951651235

For those interested in the lyric essay, writings on conservation and the natural world, our relationship with elemental forces written in the meditative style of Wendell Berry or Annie Dillard, I recommend Chila's work highly. 

Samples and excerpts from her essays, along with links to interviews, and her award-winning essay, Guesswork, in its entirety, can be found at www.chilawoychik.com. 

Here is a link to an interview she did with Roanoke Review:

https://www.roanokereview.org/interviews-backpage/2019/3/17/19/chila-woychik

Chila has also published a mystery novella, The Query, featuring the intrigues of Maddie Hill, a small press publisher. 

Next to come in the Maddie Hill series is The Trail, due out soon. 

Both of these are available from Port Yonder Press, http://www.portyonderpress.com/. 

Not only is Chila the recipient of writing awards from Emrys Foundation, and Red Savina Review, she's also the founding editor of Eastern Iowa Review, which is published by Port Yonder Press. 

She was generous enough to publish fifteen of my photographs from remote locales such as the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, and tiny Moldovan villages, in the inagural issue of Eastern Iowa Review back in the spring of 2015. 

Along with these photographs, the Eastern Iowa Review included three of my short nonfiction pieces, all of which are available in my first complete essay collection, How The Quiet Breathes, published in 2022 by New Meridian Arts: 

https://www.newmeridianarts.com/how-the-quiet-breathes

Evaluating my freshman effort at an essay collection, Chila wrote: 

Duende and a sense of place often coexist, inspiration stemming from immersive geography. John Michael Flynn's How the Quiet Breathes embodies this spark. From being meticulously searched by a German official on a train to drinking morning cognac with a Moldovan villager, this fascinating journey through John's travels is as evocative as it is enlightening. There is depth in the conversations and humility in the lessons learned. There is laughter, embarrassment, and a transparent realization of the human heart. You'll enjoy these poignant selections about people very much like us but in cultures vastly different from the American experience.