Pam Houston

Pam Houston (born January 9, 1962, Trenton, New Jersey)[1] is an American author of short stories, novels and essays. She is best known for her first book, Cowboys Are My Weakness (1992), which has been translated into nine languages, and which won the 1993 Western States Book Award.[1][2][3] Also, "Cowboys Are My Weakness" was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992.[4]

Houston's stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century.[2] She is a winner of the Western States Book Award,[1] the WILLA award for contemporary fiction,[1] and The Evil Companions Literary Award, [5] and multiple teaching awards.

Major themes in Houston's work include relationships between men and women, the outdoors, animals and childhood trauma.[1][6][7][8]

Personal life

Houston was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to an actress and a businessman.[1] She attended Denison University in Ohio, graduating in 1983 with a BA in English.[1] She held several odd jobs before entering a graduate program at the University of Utah. She is currently the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis,[9] and teaches in the Pacific University low residency MFA program, and at writer’s conferences around the world. Houston currently lives on a ranch at 9,000' above sea level in Colorado, near the headwaters of the Rio Grande River.[10]

Books

Education & Interests

B.A. (Denison University, Granville, Ohio) 1983;[1] M.A., University of Utah, 1992; Creative writing (fiction, nonfiction and plays), modernism, contemporary fiction, the short story, wilderness literature[13]

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Pam Houston." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|H1000115007
  2. 1 2 3 Updike, Katrina Kenison The Best American Short Stories of the Century. p 792. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. on GoogleBooks. January 4, 2014.
  3. "Bedford St. Martins".
  4. 1 2 Cheuse, Alan. "Book Review: 'Contents May Have Shifted'." West, Kathryn. "Pam Houston." American Short-Story Writers Since World War II: Fourth Series. Ed. Patrick Meanor and Joseph McNicholas. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 244. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|H1200010297
  5. Montana Arts Council Thursday, October 10, 2013 December 9, 2014
  6. 1 2 Debbie. "Houston, Pam. Contents May Have Shifted." Library Journal 1 Jan. 2012: 95. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A276895410
  7. 1 2 "Houston's heroine curiously vulnerable: Waltzing the cat." Globe & Mail Toronto, Canada 17 Oct. 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A30013821
  8. Grover, J.Z. "Women on Hunting." The Women's Review of Books Feb. 1996: 10+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A18084579
  9. "Department of English, UC Davis".
  10. "Official Website".
  11. Cheuse, Alan. "Book Review: 'Contents May Have Shifted'." All Things Considered 13 Feb. 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A281923875
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 WorldCat author page. January 9, 2013
  13. Department of English - UC Davis profile
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