Mattie McClane

Mattie McClane (Kristine A. Kaiser) is an American novelist, poet, and journalist. She is the second and youngest daughter born to James L. and Shirlie I. Myers in Moline, Illinois. Her father was a commercial artist and her mother worked as a secretary.

McClane's earliest education was in the Catholic schools. Her experience with their teachings deeply affected her. At a young age, she became aware of gender inequality. She credits her early religious instruction for making her think about "all kinds of truths" and ethical matters.

McClane's parents divorced when she was eight years old. Her mother remarried attorney John G. Ames and the new couple moved to a house beside the Rock River. The river centrally figures in McClane's creative imagination. She describes her childhood as being “extraordinarily free and close to nature.” 

McClane moved to Colorado and married John Kaiser in 1979 in Aurora, just East of Denver.

They then moved to Bettendorf, Iowa where they had three children. John worked as a chemist. Mattie became interested in politics, joining the local League of Women Voters. According to McClane, she spent her 20s “caring for her young children and working for good government.” 

She graduated from Augustana College with a B.A. degree in the Humanities. She began writing a political column for Quad-Cities Online and Small Newspaper Group, based in Illinois. 

Her family moved to Louisville, Kentucky where she continued with her journalism and then earned an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville. Critically acclaimed author Sena Jeter Naslund directed her first creative thesis, “Unbuttoning Light and Other Stories,” which was later published in a collection. 

She was accepted to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program, where she wrote the short novel Night Ship, working under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize winning author Alison Lurie. McClane studied with Dennis Sampson in poetry also. She graduated in 1999. 

She would write a column for the High Point Enterprise in North Carolina. She would later write for the News and Observer. McClane has regularly published commentary for over 25 years.

Mattie McClane is the author of Night Ship: A Voyage of Discovery, (2003) (2017), River Hymn: Essays Evangelical and Political (2004), Wen Wilson (2009), Unbuttoning Light: The Collected Short Stories of Mattie McClane (2012) Now Time (2013), Stations of the Cross (2016), The Mother Word: An Exploration of the Visual (2017), Simeon's Canticle (2018),The Song of the Grackle (2019) The Magnificent Light of Morning (2021), and To Free the Sisters of Mary (2022), At the Edge of the Cities Burning (2023).