Keynote Speaker

Kim Barnes

Kim was born in Lewiston, Idaho, and one week later, returned with her mother to their small line-shack on Orofino Creek, where her father worked as a logger. The majority of her childhood was spent in the isolated settlements and cedar camps along the North Fork of Idaho’s Clearwater River. She was the first member of her family to attend college. Kim is a recipient of the PEN/Jerard Award in nonfiction for her first memoir, In the Wilderness, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Hungry for the World, Kim’s second memoir, was a Borders Books New Voices Selection. Kim is also the author of three novels: Finding Caruso; A Country Called Home, winner of the 2009 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction and named a Best Book of 2008 by The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, and The Oregonian; and In the Kingdom of Men, listed among the Best Books of 2012 by San Francisco Chronicle and The Seattle Times. Kim is a professor of English in the MFA program at the University of Idaho.