Noah Ashenhurst (born 1972) is the author of the novel ''

Comfort Food Comfort food is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone, and may be characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual, or it may app ...

'' which won the 2006 Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Regional Fiction (West-Pacific). The novel is set primarily in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

and deals with six characters who struggle to find their place and purpose in the world. His short fiction has appeared in ''Beyond the Margins: A Literature and Art Magazine'', ''apparatus magazine:a literary journal from the internal machine'', ''Brittle Star'', ''Write This'', and ''Absinthe Revival''. Ashenhurst grew up in Boulder, Colorado where he attended Boulder High School. He attended

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

and the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

. He earned his MFA from Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University, and is writing his second novel. He has worked in a salmon cannery in Alaska, has traveled to Budapest and Prague, and remodeled houses in Boulder. He currently lives in

Mason County, Washington Mason County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,726. The county seat and only incorporated city is Shelton. The county was formed out of Thurston County on March 13, 1854. Origi ...

. He taught English and creative writing at North Mason High School in Belfair, WA and is now an online English teacher in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

References

21st-century American novelists Writers from Olympia, Washington 1972 births Living people Pacific Lutheran University alumni Western Washington University alumni Writers from Boulder, Colorado American male novelists 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Colorado Novelists from Washington (state) {{US-novelist-1970s-stub