Pam Houston is the author of two novels, two collections of short stories, and the memoir Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country. She is also the co-author of Air Mail: Letters of Politics Pandemics and Place, among other books. She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Davis and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She cofounded the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers, and is fiction editor at Terrain.org. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

(Photo credit: Mike Blakemen)