CW Faculty

Dept. of English
University of Idaho
P.O. Box 441102
Moscow, ID 83844-1102

Kim Barnes (fiction and nonfiction) is author of two memoirs: In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country, finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the PEN/Jerard Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award; and in 2000, Hungry for the World.  She was the recipient of a 2001 Pushcart Prize for her essay, "The Ashes of August."  Her novel, Finding Caruso, was published by Marian Wood/Putnam in 2003.  She has edited with Claire Davis, a collection of essays by contemporary women writers entitled Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by 25 Women Over 40, published by Doubleday in 2006.  Her new novel, A Country Called Home, will be published this fall by Alfred A. Knopf.

Mary Clearman Blew (fiction and nonfiction)  is author of the acclaimed essay collection All But the Waltz; a memoir, Balsamroot; and three books of short stories, most recently Sister Coyote (2001).  She has also edited Written on Water: Essays on Idaho Rivers by Idaho Writers (A second volume in a projected four-volume elemental series--Forged in Fire--was released in 2005, co-edited with Phil Druker.)  Her own most recent book of essays is Bone Deep in Landscape (2001).  Her stories have been reprinted in both the Best American and O'Henry collections.  She has won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award twice, once in fiction and once in nonfiction.   In 2004, Professor Blew received the "Distinguished Achievement Award" from the Western Literature Association, an award previously won by such writers such as Wallace Stegner, Tillie Olsen, and Gary Snyder.  Her novel Jackalope Dreams (Nebraska) is hot off the presses.

Ron McFarland (poetry and criticism) is author or editor of more than a dozen books, including anthologies, critical studies, monographs on Northwest writers, and most recently his new and selected poems, Stranger in Town.  His critical text, Understanding James Welch, was listed among the "Best of the Best" of the university presses in 2001.  His collection of stories and essays is Catching First Light (2001).  Professor McFarland is currently at work on a critical study of contemporary western memoirs.  Ron served as Idaho's first "Writer-in-Residence."

Daniel Orozco (fiction) A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford, Daniel Orozco teaches fiction writing at all levels.  His stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, as well as in magazines like Harper's,  Zoetrope, McSweeney's, and Story Quarterly.  In addition, his story, "Orientation," was featured on the National Public Radio program Selected Shorts.  Daniel's "Officers Weep," which first appeared in Harper's, was selected by Joyce Carol Oates for inclusion in the Best American Mystery Stories 2005.  Daniel was a 2006 NEA Fellow and spent the summer of '06 writing in Marfa, Texas, where he was a guest of the Lannan Foundation.  Daniel's story "Shakers" was selected by editor David Foster Wallace to appear in the Best American Essays anthology for 2006.  He recently was awarded a fellowship by the Idaho Commission on the Arts.

Joy Passanante (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction) is author of Sinning in Italy, a poetry chapbook, and the novel My Mother's Lovers (2002). Her poems, essays, and stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies.  She has twice received writing fellowships from the Idaho Commission on the Arts.  Her collection of stories, The Art of Absence, appeared in the winter of 2004.  Joy is Associate Director of the creative writing program and coordinator of undergraduate creative writing.  She has recently been awarded a Research Fellowship from the Idaho Humanities Council for her work on a series of personal essays.

Brandon R. Schrand (nonfiction) is the author of The Enders Hotel: A Memoir, winner of the 2007 River Teeth Prize for Literary Nonfiction and a Summer 2008 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Dallas Morning News, The Utne Reader, Tin House, Shenandoah, the Colorado Review, River Teeth, Green Mountains Review, Ecotone, Isotope, and numerous other journals. He has won the Wallace Stegner Prize, the Willard R. Espy Award, two Pushcart Prize Special Mentions, and the title piece from his memoir was a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2007. He is the MFA Coordinator.

Robert Wrigley (poetry) is author of six collections of poems and winner of the San Francisco Center Book Award for In the Bank of Beautiful Sins. His Reign of Snakes won the 2000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.  His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, and numerous other periodicals.  He has also been the recipient of four Pushcart Prizes,  two NEA Fellowships, Best American Poetry selections in 2003 and 2006, as well as a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.  His essays on poets and poetry have appeared in Shenandoah, The Writer's Chronicle, and The Northwest Review.  Lives of the Animals received The Poets' Prize for 2005.  Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems was released in October, 2006.