Laura Pritchett

Laura Pritchett, PhD, directs the MFA in Nature Writing at Western Colorado University. She’s the author of seven novels, all rooted in the natural world: Hell’s Bottom, Colorado; Sky Bridge; Stars Go Blue; Red Lightning; The Blue Hour; Playing with {Wild} Fire; and Three Keys.

These novels have garnered such awards as the PEN USA Award for Fiction, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the WILLA, the High Plains Book Award, and several Colorado Book Awards. Stars Go Blue has been optioned for TV rights.

She’s also written two nonfiction books, Great Colorado Bear Stories and Making Friends with Death: A Field Guide to Your Impending Last Breath.

Environmental issues are close to her heart, and she’s editor of three anthologies about conservation. Her play, Dirt: A Terra Nova Expedition, was produced in 2018.

She’s a regular columnist for Writers on the Range and the Colorado Sun, and has had over 300 pieces published in places such as Orion, The Sun, Terrain, Ecotone, Salon, Creative Nonfiction, High Country News, The Millions, Publisher’s Weekly, The Normal School, Writers on the Range, Camas, and many others.

She earned her PhD at Purdue University and her MA at Colorado State University. When not writing or teaching, she’s generally found exploring the mountains of her home state of Colorado. www.laurapritchett.com

Publications

Books – Fiction

• Three Keys, Ballantine, 2024
• Playing with {Wild}Fire, Torrey House, 2024
• The Blue Hour, Counterpoint Press, 2017. Starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. Listed by PBS as “Top 10 books that will make you think about what it is to be human.” Winner of the Colorado Book Award
• Red Lightning, Counterpoint Press, 2015
• Stars Go Blue, Counterpoint Press, 2014. Starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal. Winner of the High Plains Literary Award. Finalist for the WILLA, the Colorado Book Award, and the Mountains & Plains bookseller award. Movie option
• Sky Bridge. Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2005. Winner of the WILLA Award. Finalist for the Dublin International Book Award and the Colorado Book Award
• Hell’s Bottom, Colorado. Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2001 (short stories). Winner of the PEN/USA Fiction Prize and the Milkweed National Fiction Prize

Books – Nonfiction

• Making Friends with Death: A Field Guide to Your Impending Last Breath. Viva Editions, 2017
• Great Colorado Bear Stories. Montana: Riverbend Press, 2012

Anthologies – as editor or co-editor

• Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers, (editor and contributor.) University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. Essays on gleaning/dumpster diving. Finalist for the Colorado Book Award
• Pulse of the River: Colorado Writers Speak for the Endangered Cache la Poudre (co-editor and contributor). Johnson Books, 2007. Essays and poetry on the Cache la Poudre River in northern Colorado. Finalist for the Colorado Book Award
• Home Land: Ranching and a West that Works (co-editor and contributor). Johnson Books, 2007. Essays and poetry on ranchland preservation and the future of the New West. Winner of the Colorado Book Award

Plays

• Dirt: A Terra Nova Expedition. Full-run premiere at Bas Bleu Theatre in Fort Collins, Colorado in April 2017. https://www.basbleu.org/