HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Craig Lesley is a memoirist and novelist of the modern
American west The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
. He has been nominated twice for the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
, first for his novel ''The Sky Fisherman'' in 1996, and again for ''Storm Riders'' in 2001. He has received three Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Awards, and an
Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. ...
. His novel ''Winterkill'' was the first to win the Golden Spur award for Best Novel and Medicine Pipe Bearer's for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America He has been the recipient of several national fellowships and holds a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Whitman College.. Retrieved 2012-03-05


Biography

Born in 1945 in The Dalles, Oregon, Lesley was educated at Whitman College, the University of Kansas, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to his life in academia, Lesley was a river guide, a longshoreman, and a farmworker, nearly losing his life at the age of 15 when his pelvis was crushed in an accident with a mint harvester.''Burning Fence: A Western Memoir of Fatherhood'' Lesley's working-class background informs his writing, and is an integral part of his re-interpretation of the myths of the American West. Lesley is currently Senior Writer in Residence at Portland State University, and a faculty member in the Pacific University low-residency MFA program. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Kathryn Stavrakis. He has three adult children; two daughters and a son.


Works

*''Burning Fence: A Western Memoir of Fatherhood,'' New York: Picador, 2005. *''Storm Riders,'' New York: Picador, 2000. *''The Sky Fisherman,'' New York: Picador, 1995. *''River Song,'' New York: Picador, 1989. *''Winterkill,'' New York: Picador, 1984. Lesley has edited two collections of short stories: *''Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories,'' New York: Random House, 1991. *''Dreamers and Desperados: Contemporary Fiction of the American West.''


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesley, Craig 1945 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American memoirists American male novelists People from The Dalles, Oregon Whitman College alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni University of Kansas alumni Portland State University faculty Pacific University faculty Writers from Portland, Oregon 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Oregon 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers