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People Background
Ana Maria Spagna MFA

Ana Maria Spagna MFA

Nature Writing Concentration Faculty

Contact Information

amspagna@western.edu
Remote

Academic Divisions

Graduate Program in Creative Writing School of Graduate Studies

Functional Areas

Nature Writing – MA or MFA in Creative Writing Graduate Program in Creative Writing

Education

MFA, Fairfield University, Nonfiction & Poetry, 2020
MA, Northern Arizona University, English - Fiction Writing emphasis, 1996
BA, Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, English Literature, 1989

Biography

Ana Maria Spagna is a former trail-crew laborer whose work explores the intersections of nature, community, queerness, and social justice in the American West. She is the author of ten books, most recently, Coiled: Essays on Urgency and Kinship. Her previous books include Pushed: Miners, a Merchant and (Maybe) a Massacre, an investigation of xenophobia in the Inland Northwest, Reclaimers, stories of elder women reclaiming sacred land and water, Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: a Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey, winner of the River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, and three essay collections, Uplake, Potluck, and Now Go Home. She has also written a novel for young people, The Luckiest Scar on Earth, and a chapbook of poetry, Mile Marker Six. Ana Maria’s work has been recognized by the Society for Environmental Journalists, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award, and her essays have appeared in Terrain.org, Orion, Ecotone, Sierra, Grist, Brevity, and regularly in High Country News. In addition to Western, she has taught at Whitman College, St. Lawrence University, Antioch University, as the William Kittredge Distinguished Writer in Residence in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, and currently at Wenatchee Valley College. She lives with her wife, Laurie, in the North Cascades.

Courses taught

  • CRWR 685: Nature Writing Prose
  • CRWR 689: Special Topics – Writing the Nonhuman

Publications

Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre. Torrey House Press. 2023

Mile Marker Six. Finishing Line Press. 2021

Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going. University of Washington Press. 2018

The Luckiest Scar on Earth. Torrey House Press. 2017

Reclaimers. University of Washington Press. 2015

100 Skills You’ll Need for the End of the World (as We Know It). Storey Publishing. 2015

Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness. Oregon State University Press. 2011

Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey. University of Nebraska Press. 2010

 Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging and the Crosscut Saw. Oregon State University Press. 2004