Waterston joins OSU-Cascades

Award-winning author and poet Ellen Waterston has joined the faculty of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Oregon State University – Cascades.

“We’re thrilled to bring Ellen’s literary voice and passion for writing and writers to the MFA in Creative Writing,” said Jennifer Reimer Recio, director of the MFA program and an assistant professor of American studies at OSU-Cascades. “She is a wonderful addition to our talented faculty authors and will be an inspiration to MFA students and alumni.”

Waterston will teach writing courses and mentor graduate student writers in creative nonfiction.

“As a former New Englander who came West to ranch decades ago, I look forward to sharing my love of writing, teaching, and this unique high desert landscape with OSU-Cascades students,” said Waterston.

Waterston has written three literary nonfiction titles, including most recently, “Walking the High Desert: Encounters with Rural America Along the Oregon Desert Trail.” Other titles include a collection of essays, “Where the Crooked River Rises,” and a memoir, “Then There Was No Mountain.” Of her four poetry titles, “Hotel Domilocos” is her most recent collection. Waterston adapted her verse novel, “Vía Láctea” to a libretto that premiered as a full-length opera in 2016 and is slated for a second staging

in 2022.

Waterston founded, and for more than a decade directed, The Nature of Words, a nonprofit based in Bend that hosted an annual literary festival and offered year-round creative writing workshops.

She was instrumental in developing the MFA program at OSU-Cascades.