deniseadevries@gmail.com

Denise Aileen DeVries is a translator and writer from Colorado who has lived in rural Virginia since the late 1990s. The setting and history of the Northern Neck and Chesapeake Bay region inspired the fictional town of “Hull Crossing,” where, no matter what year it is, gossip moves faster than the speed of light.

In the spring of 2020, after four years in Arizona, Denise and her husband, artist Alvaro Ibañez, returned to their home in Kilmarnock Virginia to continue developing a retreat center for the arts, opening the Surreal Arizona gallery in April of that year. On the the fourth Sunday of the month, they hold events to promote local authors. See more on the News link.

In 2020, the Tempe Library Readers Theater performed Denise’s play, A Two-Faced Spinster. After returning to Kilmarnock in March of that year, she continued the Bilocalalia blog and began writing for Chesapeake Style Magazine.

The Tempe Legacy Writing Club entrusted Denise with the task of editing their illustrated poetry collection, Measured Moments, the way we see it, which came out in October 2020.

That same year, she finished her historical fiction novels, Sweet Tea and Vinegar Pie and Prickly Pear Lemonade, which are available in print and as e-books. They are part of the Hull Crossing Chronicles series.

Denise is currently working on a companion series called the Key to History, in which four children between the ages of 9 and 13 explore Hull Crossing and its surroundings with the help of a magic key. Delia Ibañez designed the covers for the books, Staying Indoors, Steamboats and Ghost Crabs, and Ice Cream and Parade Floats. Alvaro Ibañez provided the cover art for all of the novels.

In September, 2022, Denise’s short play, A Close Shave, was chosen for a workshop at Muse Writer’s Center and staged reading at the Little Theater of Norfolk. The play is inspired by characters and situations in “Hull Crossing Chronicles.”

She is currently collaborating on writing a play for Lancaster Players in White Stone.

Denise’s books can also be checked out at the Lancaster and Northumberland County Libraries.