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Craig Lesley, author
Craig Lesley is a memoirist and novelist of the modern American west. He has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, 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, the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award for Best Novel, and an Oregon Book Award. He has been the recipient of several national fellowships and holds a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Whitman College.

Biography

Born in 1945 in The Dalles, Oregon, Lesley was educated at Whitman College, the University of Kansas, and the University of Massachusetts. Prior to his life in academia, Lesley was a river guide, a kitchen manager, and a farm-worker, nearly losing his life at 15 when his pelvis was crushed in an accident with a mint harvester. Lesley's working-class background informs his writing, and is an integral part of his elegant 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 Stavrakas. He has three adult children; two daughters and a son.

Works

Burning Fence: A Western Memoir of Fatherhood, New York: Picador, 2005. ISBN 9780312426255

Storm Riders, New York: Picador, 2000. ISBN 0312245548

The Sky Fisherman, New York: Picador, 1995. ISBN 0312147384

Riversong, New York: Picador, 1989. ISBN 0312244916

Winterkill, New York: Picador, 1984. ISBN 0312152442

Lesley has edited two collections of short stories:

Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories, New York: Random House, 1991. ISBN 0385312725

Dreamers and Desperados: Contemporary Fiction of the American West. ISBN 0440505178

References

External Links

http://www.craiglesley.com/index.php