About Kristen

Arvada, Colorado, with Fluffy

Kristen Iversen grew up in Arvada, Colorado near the Rocky Flats nuclear weaponry facility and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Denver. She is Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at The University of Memphis and also Editor-in-Chief of The Pinch, an award-winning literary journal. During the summers she serves on the faculty of the MFA Low-Residency Program at The University of New Orleans, held in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and Edinburgh, Scotland.

She is the author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats and Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction. Several documentaries have been based on this book. Iversen is also the author of a textbook, Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction.

Kristen Iversen has two sons and currently lives in Memphis.


AWARDS, GRANTS, & HONORS

-Louise Eisenhardt Award for creative and academic achievement, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, April 2011.
-Creative Arts Fellowship, Colorado Art Ranch, 2009, 2010.
-Finalist, The Iowa Review Award for Nonfiction, 2006.
-Early Career Research Award and Faculty Research Grant for Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, The University of Memphis, 2005, 2006.
-Colorado Endowment for the Humanities Prize for Chatelaine (essay), 2004.
-Creative Arts Fellowship, San Jose Arts Council, San Jose, California, 2003.
-Colorado Book Award for Biography, the Fifth Biennial Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction, and finalist for the WILLA Award in Nonfiction for Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth.
-Finalist, The Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1993, The Shape of a Secret (short stories), University of Georgia Press.
-Arts Fellowship, Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute, Denver, Colorado, 1992.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

-“How to Be Tough in Creative Nonfiction.” The Art of Friction II: (Meta)Writing in (Non)Fiction. Jill Talbot, ed. University of Iowa Press, 2012.
-“An Interview with Kristen Iversen.” The Art of Friction II: (Meta)Writing in (Non)Fiction. Jill Talbot, ed. University of Iowa Press, 2012.
-“Kristen Iversen: Roaming Writer.” Skirt Magazine. June 2010.
-“Crash.” The Normal School. California State University, Fresno. Fall 2010.
-“Final Cut.” Telling Stories Out of Court. Ed. Ruth O’Brien. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2008.
-“Explorations in Nonfiction: A Discussion with Kristen Iversen, John Calderazzo, and Michael Gorra.” Robert Root, editor. The Fourth Genre. 2006.

DOCUMENTARIES BASED ON IVERSEN'S WORK

-Molly Brown: Biography of a Changing Nation. National Endowment for the Arts, Historic Denver, and the Molly Brown House Museum, 2008.
-Molly Brown: An American Original. Arts and Entertainment (A & E) Biography, 1997.
-Molly Brown. Great Museums (PBS). 2004.
-What Happened After: The Titanic Survivors. The History Channel, 2001.
-The Life and Legend of Molly Brown. Knowledge Television, Echo Productions, August 1999.
-Beyond Titanic. A & E Biography, March 1998.
-America’s Castles: The Story of Molly Brown. A & E Network, August 1998.