Mixing Humor with Sincerity: Dawn Burns, Novelist

by Cynthia Davis

"Evangelina Everyday" (Cornerstone Press, University of Wisconsin-March 2022) is Dawn Burns' first published novel. Twenty-three stories describe the narrative of Evangelina's life. Before this, Burns published short stories and creative nonfiction/memoirs. In February, a flash fiction piece won an honorable mention in the Gemini Magazine's flash fiction contest and was published. Evangelina's voice has been talking to her for several years and now speaks to us as readers. 

Evangelina Everyday can be purchased on Amazon.

"Anxious Contemplation"

Evangelina, a Midwestern housewife from Elkhart, Indiana, has lost her way and herself. She has forgotten things people are supposed to remember, such as her favorite color and real name. Her busy mind overthinks everything, including yoga, teeth, Christmas cookie exchanges, copulating cockroaches, saltines, and Downton Abbey. [The Christmas cookie exchange is my favorite, but cockroaches run a close second.]

The book jacket describes Evangelina "as every day as women come. If she were a landscape, she'd be a patch of woods on the edge of a fallow Indiana field, the edges visible from all directions from miles away. Nothing special on the outside. A disturbance to nobody. One might think her a boring, self-contained midwestern housewife. . .Burns mixes humor with sincerity. She roots her debut collection firmly in the minutiae of Midwestern life, focusing on the inner life of one who suffers the annoyances of a Midwestern lifestyle in a manner . . . filled with anxious contemplation of the worth of her life."

When Something Catches Her Imagination . . .

Burns writes both fiction and creative nonfiction/memoir. She prefers to write short pieces that she can thread together into novels. Humor? Consider this title: Born Beneath Pedro's Sombrero: Tales from the National Association of Tourist Attraction Survivors. An as-yet-unpublished book, it intertwines stories about fictional characters living in or closely connected to American tourist attractions like the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota; the Living Bible Museum in Mansfield, Ohio; and more locally, the Belle Gunness exhibit in the LaPorte County Historical Museum.

She's working on a collaborative nonfiction project with her wife, Bex Miller, a poet, entitled Picking Persimmons: Reflections on Midwestern Men, plus a collection of reflections coupled with sunrise pictures of Lake Wawasee entitled Dawn at Dawn: Sunrise Reflections.

            "When something catches my imagination, I run with it. Sometimes nothing comes of it, but sometimes something pretty terrific…. or at least weirdly interesting does." She is fascinated by people's stories and passions and driven by life's particularities and peculiarities. Though often inspired by the unusual, such as a friend's story about her mother's cherished wishbone collection or the taxidermized squirrels at Ohio's Living Bible Museum, she says, "I don't only write about weird things, though. Sometimes I write reflections sparked by nature, especially sunrises."

While Burns has been making up stories as long as she can remember, she committed to writing as a college freshman on a trip to England. While visiting Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, she experienced a deep knowing that she would be a writer. At age 18, she changed her major from social work to English.

Beginning in 1998 after earning her MFA in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame, she has taught college English for 20 years. Having lived many years in Michigan and Ohio, she returned to Indiana in 2016. She lived one year in rural Whitley County, then moved to Syracuse, where she lived with her wife and daughter. Most recently, she taught as an adjunct instructor at Ivy Tech in Warsaw and Manchester University.

As of this writing (August 13-14, 2022), Burns is leaving her position as an Academic Advisor at Ivy Tech and moving to Lansing, MI, to take up a role in Michigan State University's Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures department.

Show up. Hunger. Revise. Build Community. Love Yourself.

Burns' advice to budding artists addresses the attitude and the effort necessary to make art.

"Show up with an open mind and whatever art technology you use – a camera, a pen, and paper, a laptop, a sketchbook, clay, a guitar, whatever. Show up and be present to the world, the people around you, and the voice within you.”

"Hunger for what will be revealed when you let your mind wander. When the creativity won't come, be gentle on yourself and silence the inner critic that whispers you don't have the right or the skill to create. When you've created something that merits pursuit (and not everything will), keep working at it until you get it right.”

Dawn says, "Whatever I write, I revise and revise and revise until I've got it right. Build community with other artists – they are your tribe! And when you're ready to share beyond your close circle, do so even when you're trembling inside. Love yourself and trust your voice. You have a story to share.”