Kim Barnes

Infobox Writer
name = Kim Barnes


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birthdate = Birth year and age|1958
birthplace = Lewiston, Idaho, U.S.A.
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occupation = Novelist, essayist
nationality = American
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spouse = Robert Wrigley
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Kim Barnes is a contemporary American author of fiction, memoir, and personal essays.

Early life

Barnes was born in Lewiston, Idaho, in 1958, and one week later returned with her mother to their logging camp on Orofino Creek in the Clearwater National Forest, where her father worked as a lumberjack. For the next twelve years, she and her family lived in the small communities and cedar camps of northern IdahoemdashPierce, Headquarters, and a number of places along the North Fork of the Clearwater River. In 1970, the family moved to Lewiston, Idaho, where Barnes graduated from Lewiston High School in 1976.

Published work

Barnes is the author of two memoirs: (Doubleday/Anchor, ISBN 978-0385478212), and "Hungry for the World" (Villard/Anchor). Her first novel, "Finding Caruso", was published by Marian Wood Books/Putnam in 2003. Her second novel, "A Country Called Home", was released by Knopf in September 2008. She is co-editor, with Mary Clearman Blew, of "Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Western Women Writers". "Kiss tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty", co-edited with Claire Davis, was published by Doubleday in 2006. Her work has appeared widely in anthologies and journals, including "The Georgia Review", "Shenandoah", "MORE Magazine", and the Pushcart Prize anthology.

The subject matter of Barnes's creative work includes the American West, religious fundamentalism, women's issues, logging, and the environment. In "A Country Called Home," one of her main characters has the condition known as synesthesia and sees color when she hears music.

Education and awards

Barnes received her BA in English from Lewis-Clark State College in 1983, her MA in English from Washington State University in 1985, and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana in 1995. She is the recipient of two grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. In 1995, she was chosen to receive the PEN/Jerard fellowship given to an emerging woman writer of nonfiction. In 1997, she was honored with a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for "In the Wilderness", which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, and the Quality Paperback Book Club's New Visions Award. From 2004-2007, she served as Idaho Writer-in-Residence.

Personal life

Barnes teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho and lives with her husband, the poet Robert Wrigley, on Moscow Mountain in Idaho. They have three children.