Visiting Writers/Faculty
RICK BASS: Visiting Kittredge Writer, Fall 2011
Rick Bass is the author of over 20 books: short story collections, novellas, novels, nonfiction nature writing and essay collections. Why I Came West: A Memoir (2008) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. His most recent novella, The Blue Horse, was released by Narrative Stories in 2010. His novel, Nashville Chrome (2010), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize. Bass has received O. Henry Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others.
EDUARDO CHIRINOS: Visiting Writer, November 7, 2011
Eduardo Chirinos, an internationally acclaimed voice in Latin American letters, is the author of sixteen books of poetry as well as volumes of academic criticism, numerous essays, translations, children’s books, and occasional pieces. This fall, The University of Montana Press will publish a bilingual edition of his Written in Missoula. Chirinos is Professor of Spanish at the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures of the University of Montana. His most recent poetry titles in Spanish include Breve historia de la música (2001, winner of the inaugural Casa de América Prize for Latin American Poetry), Escrito en Missoula (2003), No tengo ruiseñores en el dedo (2006), Humo de incendios lejanos (2009), Catorce formas de melancolía (2010), and Mientras el lobo está (2010, winner of the XII Generation of ’27 Poetry Prize). An anthology of his work was translated into English: Reasons for Writing Poetry (London: Salt Publishing, 2011). Open Letter (Rochester, New York) will soon release the English translation of Humo de incendios lejanos (The Smoke of Distant Fires).
DAVID GATES: New Prose Faculty
David Gates is the author of the novels Jernigan and Preston Falls and a collection of stories, The Wonders of the Invisible World. His fiction has appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Tin House and Ploughshares. His nonfiction has appeared in Newsweek, where he was a longtime writer and editor, The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, GQ, Rolling Stone, H.O.W., The Oxford American and the Journal of Country Music. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and his books have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He teaches regularly in the MFA writing programs at The New School and Bennington College.
DEBRA GWARTNEY: President's Writers-in-Residence Series, March 21 - 24
Debra Gwartney is the author of the memoir Live Through This (2009), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Books for a Better Life Award. Her book was also named one of the best books of 2009 byThe Oregonian and Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Association. Gwartney has published in many magazines, newspapers and literary journals, including Poets & Writers, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Prairie Schooner, Washington Square Review, Kenyon Review, Salon, Triquarterly Review, New York Times and others. She was co-editor, along with Barry Lopez, of Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape (2006). Gwartney is a member of the nonfiction writing faculty at Portland State University in Oregon.
GARRETT HONGO: President's Writers-in-Residence Series, April 20
Garrett Hongo was born in Volcano, Hawai'i, lived as a child in Kahuku on O'ahu, and grew up thereafter in Los Angeles. He is the author of three collections of poetry, including Coral Road: Poems (2011), The River of Heaven (1988) which was the Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Yellow Light (1982). He is also the author of three anthologies and Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai'i (1995). His poems and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The American Poetry Review, Amerasia Journal, Raritan, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. He has been the recipient of several awards, including fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches at the University of Oregon, where he is Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences.
ZACHARY LAZAR: Visiting Writer, October 13 - 14, 2011
Zachary Lazar is the author of three books, most recently the novel Sway and the memoir Evening’s Empire: The Story of My Father’s Murder. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, BOMB and other places. He teaches creative writing at Tulane University.
CHANG-RAE LEE: President's Writers-in-Residence Series, February 8 -10
Chang-rae Lee is the author of the novels Native Speaker (1995), A Gesture Life (1999), Aloft (2004), and most recently, The Surrendered, which was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the American Book Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, ALA Notable Book of the Year Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Literary Award, the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, and the NAIBA Book Award for Fiction. Having emigrated to the United States from Korea at the age of three, Lee says he is “fascinated by people who find themselves in positions of alienation or some kind of cultural dissonance.” Lee is a Professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University where he teaches creative writing.
BARRY LOPEZ: President's Writers-in-Residence Series, March 21 - 24
Barry Lopez is an essayist, author, and short-story writer who has traveled extensively in remote parts of the world. He is the author of Arctic Dreams (1986), winner of the National Book Award, Of Wolves and Men (1979), a National Book Award finalist for which he received the John Burroughs and Christopher medals, and eight works of fiction. His essays are collected in two books, Crossing Open Ground (1989) and About This Life (1999). Lopez contributes regularly to Granta, Orion, Outside, Manoa and other publications. His work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, including Best American Essays, Best Spiritual Writing, and the “best” collections from National Geographic, Outside, The Georgia Review and The Paris Review. His most recent book is Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape (2006), a reader's dictionary of regional landscape terms, which he c0-edited with Debra Gwartney. Lopez is a recipient of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John Hay Medal, Guggenheim, Lannan, National Science Foundation fellowships, Pushcart Prizes in fiction and nonfiction, and other honors. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club.
MARY JANE NEALON: Visiting Writer, September 12, 2011
Mary Jane Nealon RN, MFA has published two collections of poetry and her memoir, Beautiful Unbroken (Graywolf) won the Bakeless Prize for Nonfiction. She is the recipient of fellowships from The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers Conference. In 2005 she was the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar. She lives in Missoula, MT.
ELIZABETH ROBINSON: Visiting Hugo Writer, Spring 2012
Elizabeth Robinson is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Under That Silky Roof (2006) and Apostrophe (2006). She has won the National Poetry Series and the Fence Modern Poets Prize. Robinson is co-editor of the EtherDome Chapbook series and Instance Press.
MARTHA RONK: President's Writers-in-Residence Series, March 14 - 17, 2012
Martha Ronk has published one collection of short stories, Glass Grapes (2008), a memoir and eight books of poetry, including Vertigo (winner of the 2006 National Poetry Series) and In a Landscape of Having to Repeat (2004). She received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007, the 2005 PEN USA award in poetry, the Lynda Hull Poetry Award, and Gertrude Stein Awards in Poetry. Ronk is Professor of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
photo credits: Rick Bass (Nicolle Blaisdell), Garrett Hongo (Franco Salmoiraghi), Chang-rae Lee (Morad Bouchakour), Barry Lopez (David Liittschwager), and Martha Ronk (Marcel Shain)
PAST VISITING WRITERS, 2010 -2011:
Brian Blanchfield, David Gates, C.S. Giscombe, Melissa Kwasny, Charles McGrath, Rick Moody, Susan Orlean, Peter Richards, M.L. Smoker, and Dara Wier
Past Visiting Writers, 2009-2010:
Rick Bass, Brian Blanchfield, Robert Boswell, Peter Filkins, Annie Finch, Peter Gizzi, Andrew Sean Greer, Eileen Myles, Peter Orner, Michael Perry, Peter Richards and Elizabeth Willis
Past Visiting Writers, 2008-2009:
Brian Blanchfield, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Craig Lesley, Beverly Lowry, Michael Martone, Zafer Senocak, Brad Watson and Joy Williams
PAST VISITING WRITERS, 2007 - 2008:
Stephen Amidon, Madeline DeFrees, Linh Dinh, Bryan Di Salvatore, Mary Gaitskill, Janet Campbell Hale, Andrew Joron, Frances McCue, Ed Roberson, and Tomaz Salamun