Candace Nadon PhD

Biography

Candace Nadon has an MFA in Fiction from Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in English with Creative Concentration (Fiction and Poetry) from Georgia State University, where she was a Virginia Spencer Carr Fellow. Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous journals, including Five Points, New Flash Fiction Review, Los Gatos Press, Pilgrimage Press, Hartskill Review, The Fourth River, Dogwood, and others. She contributed to and wrote the instructor’s manual for the textbook Primary Research and Writing. Her writing often explores the intersections between the body and place and explores/examines the relationships between gender, class, environment, and structures of power. She is currently at work on a Colorado-based thriller. 

In addition to her work with Western, Candace is Associate Professor of English, John F. Reed Honors Program Coordinator, and Coordinator for Academic and Creative Enrichment at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. As part of her work at FLC, she facilitates the SkyWords Visiting Writers Series, is the faculty advisor for IMAGES magazine, and is the Principal Investigator on a grant from The Teagle Foundation/ NEH, among other roles. She has participated in the Council of Public Liberal Art Colleges (COPLAC) Beard Leadership Circle. Born and raised in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, Candace loves exploring the outdoors with her Aussie, Rowan, and attempting to grow tomatoes at 7500 feet. She has deep family roots in the Gunnison Valley. Her maternal grandparents met while attending Western. Her great-grandfather, Clyde Welch, was the County Judge and ranched the land that is now the Coldharbour Institute. Her relative Ila McAfee, one of the Taos painters whose WPA mural hangs in the Gunnison Post Office, attended Western’s Normal School, and Candace is grateful to continue her family’s connections to Western and legacy of teaching.