Fiction writer Rick Bass will join Boise State University as a visiting distinguished writer for the spring 2019 semester.
Bass has written over 20 books, including “The Hermit’s Story,” “For a Little While” and “Why I Came West.” His fiction has received O. Henry Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters (in fiction, creative nonfiction and journalism categories), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, nominations for Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, a PEN/Nelson Algren Special Citation (judged by the American poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren), and a General Electric Younger Writer’s Award. He has had numerous stories anthologized in “Best American Short Stories.”
In addition to writing fiction, Bass is a well-known environmental activist who lives in Montana with his family.
Bass will give a free public reading at 7:30 p.m. on March 5 in the Lookout Room of the Student Union Building.
The visiting distinguished writer program has made it possible for Boise State’s creative writing program to bring some of the most accomplished writers working today to campus to teach and mentor graduate creative writing students. Past visiting distinguished writers include National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr, legendary poet Pierre Joris, and poet Bhanu Kapil. Writer Joy Williams was the visiting distinguished writer in the spring of 2017 and has served on third-year students’ thesis defense committees.