Rainier Writing Workshop
"I am impressed with the caliber, commitment, and generosity of the faculty. Their willingness to engage with us in and out of our classroom made this experience unlike any other I've had."
Profile
Professional
Emphases
Fiction
Nonfiction
Responsibilities
Mentor. Workshops and classes in fiction and nonfiction.
Statement: "I’ve heard writers say that, to avoid influence, they never read fiction when they're writing it. I, on the other hand, want to be influenced—by everything: the shadows on the sidewalk, the expression on a stranger's passing face, the music from an open window and, yes, other writers. I want to borrow power and style and voice, use them to challenge and stretch me. If that influence is too strong in the first draft, by the time the novel or story has gone through several revisions, it will have subsumed all those influences, taken them in and become its own thing. The same ought to be true for a writing workshop. We should be influenced and challenged by all those other minds—and yet in the end, emerge with our own, unique voice, an amalgamation that isn't an amalgamation at all."
Personal
Biography
Two of his books were listed as Notable Books of the year by The New York Times, and his work has been cited in Best American Short Stories and Best of the West. Twisted Tree won both the Society of Midland Authors Award and the High Plains Literary Award for Best Novel of 2009 and is being translated for a 2011 French edition.
The Work of Wolves received the Mountains and Plains Bookseller's Award and was listed as one of the best books of 2004 by The Christian Science Monitor. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, he has also received distinguished teaching awards from both the Faculty and Student Senates at Black Hills State University where he is Writer-in-Residence. He lives and works in Spearfish, South Dakota.
'A writer finishes'
From an online interview with Catherine Tudor
"There's always one more thing you can read." "I think the greatest risk a writer can take may be writing in the first person, nonfiction voice – in other words, in one's own voice." "I've never taken a creative writing class." "If you're going to write prose, write every day." "A writer finishes."
