Scott Russell Sanders

Scott Russell Sanders’ nineteen books include novels (BAD MAN BALLAD, TERRARIUM, THE ENGINEER OF BEASTS) and collections of short stories (WILDERNESS PLOTS, FETCHING THE DEAD), but his chief work has been in literary nonfiction (THE PARADISE OF BOMBS, SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE, STAYING PUT, WRITING FROM THE CENTER, HUNTING FOR HOPE, THE FORCE OF SPIRIT, THE COUNTRY OF LANGUAGE). His writing has appeared in Harper’s, Audubon, Orion, Georgia Review, and other magazines, and in numerous anthologies. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lilly Endowment. Sanders' work has also received the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence, the Great Lakes Book Award, and the Ohioana Book Award. For his work in nonfiction, Sanders received a Lannan Literary Award in 1995. He has received three honorary degrees, and has been honored with Indiana University's highest teaching award, as well as the rank of Distinguished Professor.

Sanders has been the subject of two videos from the Lannan Foundation and of interviews or profiles in Fourth Genre, The Kenyon Review, The Sun, Iron Horse Literary Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere. For an essay which appeared in Audubon, where he is a contributing editor, he won the John Burroughs Natural History Essay Award for 2000. His essay "The Force of Spirit" appeared in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2000, the fourth time his work has appeared in this annual collection of outstanding nonfiction. Sanders' most recent book is A PRIVATE HISTORY OF AWE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006), a coming-of-age memoir, love story, and spiritual testament.

Home page: www.scottrussellsanders.com.

Creative Writing Program
English Dept., Indiana University
Ballantine Hall 442
1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103

Phone: (812) 855-9539