Ursula Hegi

Ursula Hegi (23 May, 1946 - ) is a fiction author. She lived in West Germany until she was 18. She moved to the United States and has lived both on the East Coast and in Spokane, Washington. She first wrote stories set in the United States, and then began to write fiction about Germany, including her best selling Oprah Book Club novel "Stones from the River" (1994).

Her many awards include an NEA Fellowship and five PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards. She won a book award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in 1991 for "Floating in My Mother's Palm". She has also written many reviews for "The New York Times", the "Los Angeles Times", and "The Washington Post". For many years, she taught creative writing at Eastern Washington University. Her recent books include "Stones from the River" (1994), "Intrusions" (1995), "Tearing the Silence: On Growing Up German in America" (1998), "The Vision of Emma Blau" (2000), "Hotel of the Saints: Stories" (2001), " Sacred Time" (2004), and "The Worst Thing I've Done" (2007).