Kristen Iversen
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Kristen Iversen is an American writer of nonfiction and fiction. Her books include ''Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats'', ''Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth'' and ''Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction,'' as well as the anthologies ''Don't Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn't Seen'' and ''Doom with a View: Historical and Cultural Contexts of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant.'' She is a Professor in English and Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati and Literary Nonfiction Editor of ''The Cincinnati Review''. Iversen was chosen to be a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bergen, Norway in 2020-2021.


Life and work

Kristen Iversen was born in
Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...
,
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
, and grew up in Arvada,
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, near the Rocky Flats nuclear weaponry facility. Her father was a small-town attorney and her mother worked as a public health nurse. The eldest of four children, Iversen attended
Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...
and then transferred to the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...
, where she received a BA in English/Creative Writing. She worked as a travel writer in Europe for several years before returning to the states to earn a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
. Iversen has taught at universities around the country, including the MFA programs at
San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
and
Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named after the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university ...
. She served as director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the
University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...
and as editor-in-chief of The Pinch, an award-winning literary journal. During the summers, she has taught in the MFA Low-Residency Program at the
University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a Public university, public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. First opened in 1958 as Louisiana State University in New Orleans, it is the largest public university and one of t ...
, held in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and Edinburgh, Scotland. She is also a Faculty Mentor in th
Mile High MFA program
at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. As of August 2014, Iversen teaches in the Ph.D. program in Creative Writing at the
University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
, where she also serves as Literary Nonfiction Editor o
The Cincinnati Review
and was
Fellow at the Taft Research Center
She also serves as Director of th
Prose, Poetry, and Passion Seminar
in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She is the author of
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
', a book of memoir and investigative journalism that traces her experience of growing up in a small Colorado community near Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated as “the most contaminated site in America.” Iversen later worked at the plant herself. ''Full Body Burden'' won th
2013 Colorado Book Award
and th
Reading the West Book Award in Nonfiction
It was also chosen one of the Best Books of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews and the American Library Association, and 2012 Best Book about Justice by ''The Atlantic''. The book was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. In 2012, an excerpt from ''Full Body Burden'' was published in the June 11th edition of
The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
. Many universities have chosen ''Full Body Burden'' for their
First Year Experience The First-Year Experience (FYE) (also known as the Freshman-Year Experience or the Freshman Seminar Program) is a program at many American colleges and universities designed to help students prepare for the transition from high school to college. F ...
/Common Read programs and it has been translated into several languages. This book is being made into a forthcoming documentary film
Full Body Burden
and it has been optioned for a television series. Iversen also edited an anthology of essays and articles about Rocky Flats by various experts around the country entitle
''Doom with a View: Historical and Cultural Contexts of Rocky Flats''
published in October 2020. A collection of literary essays
''Don't Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn't Seen''
co-edited wit
David Lazar
was published in November 2020 and features the work of leading writers of literary nonfiction. Iversen's textbook,
Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction
', was the first in its field to cover the subgenres of creative nonfiction. Her first book,
Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth
'' is a biography of Margaret Tobin Brown, known to history as “the Unsinkable Molly Brown.” The book won the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction and formed the basis for seven documentaries, including the A&E Biography ''Molly Brown: An American Legend'' and
Molly Brown: Biography of a Changing Nation
'. A new edition of the book was published in 2018. In 2020, a revival o
the musical ''The Unsinkable Molly Brown''
opened in New York, based on Iversen's book. Iversen's essays and stories have appeared in
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
, The Guardian
The American Scholar
and many other publications. In 2023 she was awarded a Taft Fellowship for Fall 2023 in support of a book-in-progress on the KKK in the West. Kristen Iversen is currently completing a literary biography of Nikola Tesla entitled ''Friend and Faithful Stranger: Nikola Tesla in the Gilded Age'', which has involved extensive research trips throughout the United States and Europe. Iversen is married to George Vujnovich, a pilot, and she has two grown sons. She divides her time between Cincinnati, Ohio and Westcliffe, Colorado.


''Full Body Burden'' summary

''Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats'' is a 2012 work of memoir and investigative journalism fusing Iversen's personal story of growing up in Cold War America with the history of the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant near
Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, once called by the Department of Energy “the most contaminated site in America.” From 1952 to 1989 there were many fires, leaks, and other mishaps at Rocky Flats. The area became severely contaminated, and little attention was paid to containment and environmental remediation. Carl J. Johnson, director of health between 1973 and 1981, led research into contamination levels and adverse effects on public health, until his employment was terminated. His research results were supported and confirmed by many subsequent studies.
Recent studies
indicate that areas on and near the Rocky Flats site are still contaminated with plutonium and may pose a significant health risk.


Books

*
Doom with a View: Historical and Cultural Contexts of Rocky Flats
'. Fulcrum Books, 2020. *
Don't Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn't Seen
'. Co-edited with David Lazar. Ohio State University Press, 2020. * *

ref>


See also

*Physicians for Social Responsibility Colorado’
Symposium on Rocky Flats: Impacts on the Environment and Health
April 23, 2022 *
Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant The Rocky Flats Plant, a former United States nuclear weapons production facility located about northwest of Denver, Colorado, Denver, caused radioactive (primarily plutonium, americium, and uranium) contamination within and outside its boundaries ...
*
Dark Circle (film) ''Dark Circle'' is a 1982 American documentary film directed and produced by Judy Irving, Christopher Beaver and Ruth Landy that focuses on the connections between the nuclear weapons and the nuclear power industries, with a strong emphasis o ...
* Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West *
Rocky Flats Truth Force The Rocky Flats Truth Force was a grass-roots non-violent anti-nuclear group formed during protests at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant near Golden, Colorado during the late 1970s. Demonstrations and track blockages at the Rocky Flats Plant in ...
*
Nuclear and radiation accidents by country This is a partial list of nuclear and radiation fatalities by country. Not all fatal incidents are included, and not all included incidents were fatal. This list only reports the proximate confirmed human deaths and does not go into detail abo ...
*
Downwinders Downwinders were individuals and communities, in the United States, in the intermountain West between the Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges primarily in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah but also in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho who were ex ...


References


External links


Official website

Kristen Iversen on NPR "Fresh Air"


{{DEFAULTSORT:Iversen, Kirsten Living people University of Colorado Boulder alumni University of Denver alumni American women memoirists American women biographers 1958 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American memoirists 21st-century American biographers