Mollie Hawkins’ life story came into focus when she learned how to tell life stories.

Hawkins began exploring the writing world while growing up in Pell City, producing a Star Wars fanfiction tale when she was only eight years old. But Hawkins says she never truly considered turning her compositions into a career until she arrived at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2004.

“They didn’t have creative writing at my high school, but I knew it was something I wanted to do,” Hawkins said. “Then when I got to UAB, the idea of taking a class that was only about creative writing blew my mind. … I started taking as many writing classes as I could.”

During this time, Hawkins says she received words of encouragement from Department of English Professor Kerry Madden-Lunsford, who teaches classes in creative nonfiction and literary fiction.

“She was the first person who told me, ‘Oh, you’re a writer. You should nurture this.’ So I just ran with that and focused on writing,” said Hawkins. “It was really those first creative writing classes that lit the fire for me and told me, ‘You can do this, and you can make money. You can turn this into a career.’ Those early experiences at UAB helped nurture the writer in me.”

Since then, Hawkins has indeed turned her passion into a profession, though the road to get there veered about 2,000 miles west. Almost on a lark, Hawkins decided to move to California, asking her boss at the coffee shop where she worked at the time, “When I fail, can I come back here?”

“There was just a day where I decided I wanted to go on an adventure and see what’s out there,” Hawkins said. “Birmingham is a special place to me. I thought I’d come back almost immediately. But it’s been 12 years, and I haven’t moved back yet.”

Instead, Hawkins started letting her written words do the talking. In addition to marketing and advertising work, her writing has appeared in a variety of publications and websites, including The Rumpus and Under the Radar Magazine. Along the way, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bennington College, and since 2021 has worked on a contract basis for the College and serves as the social media manager for the MFA in Writing program.

In addition, Hawkins recently had a book published as part of Bloomsbury Publishing’s Object Lessons series, in which stories are crafted about ordinary objects. Hawkins’ book is about the saxophone, drawing from her experiences growing up with a father who played the instrument.

“My whole career has been based around writing,” Hawkins said. “Some of it is marketing, but I also get to use storytelling techniques. Really all you can ask for as a writer is a chance for writing to be your day job.”

Hawkins hopes to continue along that career path for the foreseeable future, though she is uncertain exactly what direction it might take in the coming years. She describes herself in one of her online bios as being “90 percent coffee,” and says her dream job is “to get paid full-time to write about coffee.”

Increasingly, Hawkins says another dream is to one day return to Alabama and continue writing in the state where she first learned the craft.

“I’ll always consider Birmingham and Pell City to be home. I miss it,” Hawkins said. “I feel like all roads are going to lead me back to Birmingham at some point, though I don’t know what that will look like yet.”

Whatever takes place, one thing seems certain. It will be another story for Hawkins to tell.