The Barber’s Wife

Tanya Nichols (born May 27, 1957) is the author of the novel, The Barber’s Wife. Her work has appeared in North Carolina Literary Review, Sycamore Review, In the Grove, and San Joaquin Review. Nichols received her MFA in fiction writing in 2004 at Fresno State University where she won creative writing awards in both fiction and creative non-fiction. For the past eleven years, Nichols has taught writing and literature at Fresno State. She also serves as the coordinator of the Young Writers’ Conference and editor-in-chief of San Joaquin Review. As a child, her family moved often, up and down the state of California. Frequent moves and new homes fueled her love for stories as constant companions. Tanya is also a musician who plays mandolin and sings in a folk band. As a writer, she is naturally drawn to music with lyrics that tell a story. Tanya has one daughter, Mary Kate Monahan-Zolin, a video producer living in San Francisco with her husband, Maksim Zolin.