Interview with Elizabeth Hoban: Q3 2026 CNF Essay Contest Runner Up

Elizabeth is a traditionally published author of The Secrets That Save Us and The Cheech Room, and a historical nonfiction novel, The Final Mission, a Boy, a Pilot and a World at War. She has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles over the years. She has won several writing awards, including Bethlehem Writers Circle Best in Prose 2018, Writers Digest runner-up in Memoir 2019, Millennium runner-up for Best in Prose 2023, and Reedsy first-place award for two short stories and two short-listed. Her first winning story appears in 2025 Reedsy Anthology. She received the Miriam Chaiken Award for Best in Prose 2025, and is the 2026 guest judge for same. She won Women on Writing (WOW) Q3 Essay Contest Award 2025, as well as 3rd place in WOW 2026 Q1 Flash Fiction and 2nd place in WOW Q2 Flash Fiction.

Aside from writing, Elizabeth is a Nurse Practitioner who loves spending time with her kids and her four-legged antidepressants. She doubts any of her 6 adult kids have ever read her work – maybe her cat Seuss based on his pedigree.

--interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on placing as a runner up in our Q3 2026 Creative Nonfiction essay competition! What inspired you to write “Boys and Noise?”

Elizabeth: Thank you so much and congratulations to the other winners and runners-up! This is a true story that happened to me when I lived in Baltimore and was raising boys as a widowed mom. The difficulties of raising kids as a single parent are numerous – and I have always said that the ratio of kids in the home should never be greater than the authority figures. I obviously didn’t heed my own rules!

WOW: We’d love to know more about your writing routines. Could you tell us when and where you usually write? Do you have favorite tools or habits that get you going?

Elizabeth: I write in the evening, after I've finished my other work and chores. Most writers say they hone their skills in the early morning, when one’s mind is fresh, but that has never worked for me. My biggest tool isn't watching television or reading books (I save those for audio on my commute because I love reading). If I watch television or read someone else’s novels when I should be writing, I feel guilty. I try to write for a couple of hours before bed every day but Sundays. I save Sundays for anything but writing – spending time with my family, reading books, streaming movies, cooking, etc.

Then come Monday, I am back behind my laptop.

WOW: You’ve also placed our flash fiction contests, and have written fiction and nonfiction in various forms and lengths. Do you find one more challenging than the others? Are you drawn to one form more than the others?

Elizabeth: I find creative nonfiction a bit more challenging because it must be steeped in reality – a memoir or anecdote. I am my own worst critic, so writing about myself is sometimes difficult to wrap my head around. I think it’s why I tend to write humor when writing about my own life experiences. That offsets the awkwardness of it.

WOW: Is there a particular memoir you think everyone needs to read?

Elizabeth: If I am being honest, my favorite memoir is one I wrote about my dad’s experiences in WW2 as a B-17 pilot and POW. It is not my story, but nevertheless, because it’s true, it’s riveting and fascinating because we didn’t know the whole truth of my dad’s story until he was in his 90s. The Final Mission, a Boy, a Pilot, and a World at War, published by Westholme 2017 (audio and hardcover). That book was a labor of love for sure!

 
WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Elizabeth. Before you go, do you have any tips for our readers who may be thinking about entering writing contests?

Elizabeth: Yes – enter away! Nothing to lose but a few dollars – you get better every time you enter – and WOW is the best because they offer a critique at such a low fee. And those critiques are honestly the very best – super thorough and very helpful. Worth the extra few bucks, 100%!!

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