Rick Bass
Rick Bass | |
|---|---|
 Rick Bass in 2015 | |
| Born | March 7, 1958 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer and environmental activist |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Utah State University |
| Notable works | For a Little While |
| Notable awards | Story Prize |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Hughes Bass (1987-2015) |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Rick Bass (born March 7, 1958) is an American writer and an
environmental activist.[1]
He has a Bachelor of Science in Geology with a focus in Wildlife from Utah State University. Right after he graduated, he interned for one year as a Wildlife Biologist at the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in Arkansas. He then went onto working as an oil and gas geologist and consultant before becoming a writer and teacher. He has worked across the United States at various universities: University of Texas at Austin, Beloit College, University of Montana, Pacific University, and most recently Iowa State University. He has done many workshops and lectures on writing and wildlife throughout his career. Texas Tech University and University of Texas at Austin have collections of his written work.
Life
Bass was born in Fort Worth, Texas.[1] He studied petroleum geology at Utah State University. He grew up in Houston, and started writing short stories on his lunch breaks while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1987, he married the artist Elizabeth Hughes Bass, with whom he had two children before their divorce in 2015. He moved to Yaak Valley, where he worked to protect his adopted home from roads and logging. Rick serves on the board of the Yaak Valley Forest Council. He teaches and gives readings in the U.S. and abroad.[2]
His papers are held in two collections: the
Texas State University–San Marcos's Wittliff Collections.[1]
Awards
Bass won The
Story Prize in 2006 for his short story collection The Lives of Rocks. He was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award (autobiography) for Why I Came West
(2009). He was also awarded the General Electric Younger Writers Award, a PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.
Works
Fiction
- The Watch: Stories. W. W. Norton & Company. 1994. ISBN 978-0-393-31135-8. (Originally published 1989)
- Platte River. University of Nebraska Press. 1994. ISBN 978-0-8032-5973-7.
- In the Loyal Mountains. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1995. ISBN 0-395-71687-X.
- The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1997. ISBN 0-395-71758-2.
Rick Bass.
- Fiber. University of Georgia Press. 1998. ISBN 978-0-8203-2063-2.
fiber rick bass.
- Where the Sea Used to Be. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1999. ISBN 978-0-395-95781-3. (Originally published 1998)
- The Hermit's Story. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2003. ISBN 978-0-618-38044-2. (Originally published 2002)
- The Diezmo. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2005. ISBN 0-395-92617-3.
Rick Bass.
- The Lives of Rocks: Stories. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2006. ISBN 978-0-618-59674-4.
Rick Bass.
- Nashville Chrome: A Novel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2010. ISBN 978-0-547-31726-7.
- All the Land to Hold Us. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2013.
- For a Little While: New and Selected Stories. Little Brown. 2016. ISBN 978-0-316-38115-4
Nonfiction
- The Deer Pasture. W. W. Norton & Company. 1996. ISBN 978-0-393-31435-9. (Originally published 1985)
- Wild to the Heart. W. W. Norton & Company. 1997. ISBN 978-0-393-31487-8. (Originally published 1987)
- Oil Notes. Flamingo. 1990. ISBN 978-0-87074-383-2.
- Winter: Notes from Montana. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1991. ISBN 978-0-395-61150-0.
Rick Bass.
- The Ninemile Wolves. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2003. ISBN 978-0-618-26302-8. (Originally published 1992)
- The Lost Grizzlies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1997. ISBN 978-0-395-85700-7. (Originally published 1995)
- The Book of Yaak. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1997. ISBN 978-0-395-87746-3. (Originally published 1996)
- The New Wolves: The Return of the Mexican Wolf to the American Southwest. Globe Pequot. 2007. ISBN 978-1-59921-228-9. (Originally published 1998)
- Brown Dog of the Yaak: Essays on Art and Activism. Milkweed Editions. 1999. ISBN 978-1-57131-224-2.
- Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2000. ISBN 978-0-395-92618-5. (Originally published 2000)
- Why I Came West: A Memoir. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2008. ISBN 978-0-618-59675-1.
- The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2009. ISBN 978-0-547-05516-9.
- Caribou Rising: Defending the Porcupine Caribou Herd, Gwitch-'in Culture and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sierra Club Books. 2004. ISBN 1-57805-114-2.
- The Black Rhinos of Namibia: Searching for Survivors in the African Desert. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2012. ISBN 978-0-54705-521-3.
- With Every Great Breath: New and Selected Essays, 1995-2023
Anthologies
- Pushcart Prize
- O. Henry Award.[7]
- Best American Short Stories 1991
- Best American Short Stories 1996
- Best American Short Stories 1999
- Best American Short Stories 2001.
- The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013
About Rick Bass, non-fiction by others
- The Literary Art and Activism of Rick Bass, edited by O. Alan Weltzein, (2001). ISBN 978-0-87480-697-7
References
- ^ a b c "A Guide to the Rick Bass Papers, 1982–1994". Southwest Writer's Collection. University of Texas. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ^ "Rick Bass". Narrative Magazine. May 7, 2008. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ^ "Rick Bass: An Inventory of His Papers, 1958–2001 and undated"
- ^ John McMurtrie (March 8, 2017). "Rick Bass wins Story Prize". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ "Carl Sandburg Awards Bestowed On 4 Local Writers", by John Blades, Chicago Tribune, November 6, 1995.
- ^ "'All the Land to Hold Us' by Rick Bass". Boston Globe. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
- ^ "O. Henry Award Winners 1919–1999". Random House. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2007.
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to Rick Bass.
Archival Materials
- Author papers at Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University
- Rick Bass papers, MSS 8192 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
Essays
- Danger Nonfiction in Narrative Magazine
- "Rick Bass", On Point, July 2, 2009
- "Rick Bass", Charlie Rose, August 10, 1998
- "Rick Bass", "Love of a Place", Outside Bozeman magazine
- "Fiber", Mississippi Review, September 1997
- "Paradise Lost", Orion Magazine, January/February 2005
Other Pages
- Lopate Show with The Story Prize finalists: Rick Bass, Mary Gordon, and George Saunders (2/27/07)
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