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Laura Pritchett, author and director of Western Colorado University's Nature Writing concentration

Laura Pritchett PhD

Nature Writing Concentration Director

Contact Information

970.988.6528 lpritchett@western.edu Personal Website

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

PhD., Purdue University, Literature/Creative Writing second field, 2004
MA, Colorado State University, English, 1995
BA, Colorado State University, English, 1993

Biography

Laura Pritchett, PhD, is the author of seven novels. Her first, Hell’s Bottom, Colorado, won the PEN USA Award for Fiction and the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. This was followed by the novels Sky Bridge, Stars Go Blue, Red Lightning, The Blue Hour, Playing with (Wild)Fire, and Three Keys. These novels garnered other awards including the WILLA, the High Plains Book Award, several Colorado Book Awards, and starred reviews from major reviewers. 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 and one play Dirt: A Terra Nova Expedition.

Her first craft book, Writing for the World: Innovative Forms in Nature Writing, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2027. Environmental issues are close to her heart, and she’s editor of three anthologies about conservation. She’s had over 300 pieces published, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The LA Times, Orion, The Sun, Salon, High Country News, Terrain, Creative Nonfiction, Camas, The Millions, Publisher’s Weekly, The Normal School, The Pinch, Talking River Review, Santa Fe Review, North American Review, and many others. When not writing or teaching, she’s often found exploring her home state of Colorado.

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/