About

Ana Maria Spagna grew up in Riverside, California and moved to the Pacific Northwest as a young adult.  She is the author of nine books about nature, work, community, and history including, most recently, Pushed: Miners, a Merchant and (Maybe) a Massacre, an investigation of xenophobia in the Inland Northwest.  Ana Maria’s work has been recognized by the Society for Environmental Journalists, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her essays have appeared in dozens of publications including Orion, Sierra, Ecotone, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The Normal School, and High Country News.

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After working fifteen years on backcountry trail crews for the National Park Service, she turned to teaching and is currently on faculty in the low-residency MFA programs at Antioch University, Los Angeles and Western Colorado University. She has also served as Johnston Visiting Professor at Whitman College, the William Kittredge Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Montana,  as Viebranz Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at St. Lawrence University, and currently at Wenatchee Valley College.

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When not traveling to teach, Ana Maria lives in Stehekin, Washington, a remote community in the North Cascades accessible only by foot or ferry. She and her wife, Laurie, who maintains the historic Buckner Orchard, married in 2012.