Milana Marsenich

Milana Marsenich lives in Northwest Montana near Flathead Lake at the base of the beautiful Mission Mountains. She enjoys quick access to the mountains and has spent many hours hiking the wilderness trails with friends and dogs. As a natural listener and a therapist, she has witnessed amazing generosity and courage in others. She first witnessed this in her hometown of Butte, Montana, a mining town with a rich history and the setting for Copper Sky, her first novel. Copper Sky was chosen as a 2018 Spur Award finalist for Best Western Historical Novel. She has an M.Ed. in Mental Health Counseling from Montana State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. She has previously published in Montana Quarterly, Big Sky Journal, The Polishing Stone, The Moronic Ox, BookGlow, and Feminist Studies. She has a short story included in The Montana Quarterly book: Montana, Warts and All. She has three published novels, Copper Sky, The Swan Keeper, and Beautiful Ghost, and one popular history book, Idaho Madams. Her soon-to-be-released novel, Shed Girl: A Juliet French Mystery, will be available January 18, 2024. In addition to Copper Sky being a Spur Award finalist in 2018, The Swan Keeper was a Willa Award finalist in 2019, and her short story, Wild Dogs, won the Laura Award for short fiction in 2020. She is a member of Western Writers of America and of Women Writing the West.