Your future, our focus
P O W E L L, W y o. - Kim Barnes, a Pulitzer prize finalist will talk about her writing Thursday, March 29, at a Northwest College Writers Series presentation in Powell. Her program starts at 7 p.m. in Room 70 of the Fagerberg Building.
Barnes was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in biography/autobiography for her memoir, "In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country." She received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award that same year.
Barnes grew up in lumber camps near Pierce, Idaho. Her large extended family moved up and down the Clearwater River living in small camps and communities created by the logging company. Her memoir traces the changes caused by a break-up of her extended family, the stress of finding work in a changing logging industry and her father's new devotion to a strict Pentecostal belief system.
Her sequel, "Hungry for the World" recounts her rebellious teenage years and the harsh reality of entering an outside life after leaving a secluded childhood behind.
Barnes currently teaches at the University of Idaho as an associate professor of English. Previously, she taught at Lewis and Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.
Her program in Powell is sponsored by the Northwest College Writers Series. Admission is free.