Pam Houston (born January 9, 1962, in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

) is an American author of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, novels and

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

s. She is best known for her first book, ''Cowboys Are My Weakness'' (1992), which has been translated into nine languages, and which won the 1993

Western States Book Award Western States Book Award honored notable works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and translation written and published in the Western United States. The award was given annually from 1984 until 2002. Lifetime-achievement awards were also p ...

."Pam Houston." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE, H1000115007
/ref>Updike, Katrina Kenison ''The Best American Short Stories of the Century.'' p 792. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. on GoogleBooks. January 4, 2014.
/ref> ''Cowboys Are My Weakness'' was named a

New York Times Notable Book ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

in 1992.Cheuse, Alan. "Book Review: 'Contents May Have Shifted'." West, Kathryn. "Pam Houston." American Short-Story Writers Since World War II: Fourth Series. Ed. Patrick Meanor and Joseph McNicholas. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 244. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE, H1200010297
/ref> Houston's stories have been selected for volumes of

Best American Short Stories ''The Best American Short Stories'' is a yearly anthology that's part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the ''BASS'' has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of th ...

, The O. Henry Awards, The

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is a winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, and The Evil Companions Literary Award, and multiple teaching awards. Major themes in Houston's work include relationships between men and women, the outdoors, animals and

childhood trauma Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences. Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and phys ...

.Debbie. "Houston, Pam. Contents May Have Shifted." Library Journal 1 Jan. 2012: 95. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE, A276895410
/ref>"Houston's heroine curiously vulnerable: Waltzing the cat." Globe & Mail Toronto, Canada 17 Oct. 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE, A30013821
/ref>

Personal life

Houston was raised in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

. Her parents were an actress and a businessman. She attended

Denison University Denison University is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio, United States. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. It was first called ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, graduating in 1983 with a BA in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. She held several odd jobs before entering a

graduate program Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

. She took up an appointment as the Lois and Willard Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1846 when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It has an enrollment of roughly 1,000 undergradua ...

in the academic year 2002-2003. She currently teaches in the MFA program at U.C. Davis, and at the

Institute of American Indian Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed ...

in Santa Fe. She directs the nonprofit Writing By Writers which puts on non-university based writing conferences across the American West and in France. Houston currently lives on a ranch at 9,000' above sea level in

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

headwaters The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

of the

Rio Grande River The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Me ...

Books

* "Cowboys Are My Weakness". Paperback: 171 pages, Publisher: Washington Square Press (February 1, 1993), * "Waltzing the Cat". Paperback: 288 pages, Publisher: Washington Square Press; First Edition (September 1, 1999), * "A Little More About Me". Paperback: 304 pages, Publisher: Washington Square Press (October 1, 2000), * "Sight Hound: A Novel". Paperback: 352 pages, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (January 17, 2006), * "Contents May Have Shifted: A Novel". Hardcover: 320 pages, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (February 6, 2012), , WorldCat author page. January 9, 2013
/ref> * ''Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country'', Hardcover: 288 pages, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, (January 29, 2019)

Education and interests

B.A. (Denison University,

Granville, Ohio Granville is a Village (United States)#Ohio, village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,946 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The village is located in a rural area of hills, known locally as the Welsh Hills ...

) 1983;

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

, University of Utah, 1992; Creative writing (fiction,

nonfiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively ...

and

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, contemporary fiction, the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

wilderness literature Outdoor literature is a literature genre about or involving the outdoors. Outdoor literature encompasses several different subgenres including exploration literature, adventure literature and nature writing. Another subgenre is the guide book, an ...

Department of English - UC Davis profile
/ref>

References

External links

* * ''Radio Interview with Pam Houston on "Read First, Ask Later" (Ep. 19)
/span>'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Pam Living people People from Trenton, New Jersey American women non-fiction writers American women short story writers University of California, Davis faculty 1962 births Writers from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania American women novelists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers