{{Short description|American writer and academic}} thumb|Houston at the 2019 Texas Book Festival '''Pam Houston''' (born January 9, 1962, in Trenton, New Jersey)<ref name="cao" /> is an American author of short stories, novels and essays. She is best known for her first book, ''Cowboys Are My Weakness'' (1992), which has been translated into nine languages, and which won the 1993 Western States Book Award.<ref name="cao">[http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CH1000115007&source=Bookmark&u=22396_largo&jsid=7b15db88c362a2db725cf591275ac7f1 "Pam Houston." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|H1000115007]</ref><ref name="updike">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-0ZMc63Kbv8C&q=%221993+Western+States+Book+Award.%22John&pg=PA792 Updike, Katrina Kenison ''The Best American Short Stories of the Century.'' p 792. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. on GoogleBooks. January 4, 2014.]</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Bedford St. Martins|url=http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/Catalog/static/bsm/experience_literature8e/fiction/houston.htm|access-date=2012-07-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109091701/http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/Catalog/static/bsm/experience_literature8e/fiction/houston.htm|archive-date=2014-01-09|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''Cowboys Are My Weakness'' was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992.<ref name="west">[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1200010297&v=2.1&u=22396_largo&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=56f42055b11e201b1902704154a04bb2 Cheuse, Alan. "Book Review: 'Contents May Have Shifted'." West, Kathryn. "Pam Houston." American Short-Story Writers Since World War II: Fourth Series. Ed. Patrick Meanor and Joseph McNicholas. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 244. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|H1200010297]</ref>
Houston's stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century.<ref name="updike" /> She is a winner of the Western States Book Award,<ref name="cao" /> the WILLA award for contemporary fiction,<ref name="cao" /> and The Evil Companions Literary Award,<ref>[https://montanaartscouncil.blogspot.com/2013/10/high-plains-bookfest-keynote-reading.html Montana Arts Council Thursday, October 10, 2013 December 9, 2014]</ref> and multiple teaching awards.
Major themes in Houston's work include relationships between men and women, the outdoors, animals and childhood trauma.<ref name="cao" /><ref name="contents">[http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/MagazinesDetailsPage/MagazinesDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Magazines&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA276895410&source=Bookmark&u=22396_largo&jsid=e981689b9908496e36db9c95c2ef0afeBogenschutz, Debbie. "Houston, Pam. Contents May Have Shifted." Library Journal 1 Jan. 2012: 95. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A276895410]</ref><ref name="cat">[http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=News&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA30013821&source=Bookmark&u=22396_largo&jsid=4e7fe81c6169ccaa7a9ab9ca0fc86813 "Houston's heroine curiously vulnerable: Waltzing the cat." Globe & Mail Toronto, Canada 17 Oct. 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A30013821]</ref><ref>[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA18084579&v=2.1&u=22396_largo&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=7a6fe1fe5d0f20afe5c22d07c42365e1 Grover, J.Z. "Women on Hunting." The Women's Review of Books Feb. 1996: 10+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A18084579]</ref>
==Personal life==
Houston was raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her parents were an actress and a businessman.<ref name="cao" /> She attended Denison University in Ohio, graduating in 1983 with a BA in English.<ref name="cao" /> She held several odd jobs before entering a graduate program at the University of Utah. She took up an appointment as the Lois and Willard Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College in the academic year 2002-2003. She currently teaches in the MFA program at U.C. Davis,<ref>{{cite web|title=Department of English, UC Davis|url=http://english.ucdavis.edu/people/directory/plhousto}}</ref> and at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She directs the nonprofit Writing By Writers which puts on non-university based writing conferences across the American West and in France. Houston currently lives on a ranch at 9,000' above sea level in Colorado, near the headwaters of the Rio Grande River.<ref>{{cite web|title=Official Website|url=https://pamhouston.wordpress.com}}</ref>
== Books == * "Cowboys Are My Weakness".<ref name="updike" /> Paperback: 171 pages, Publisher: Washington Square Press (February 1, 1993), {{ISBN|978-0671793883}}<ref name="wc" /> * "Waltzing the Cat".<ref name="cat" /> Paperback: 288 pages, Publisher: Washington Square Press; First Edition (September 1, 1999), {{ISBN|978-0671026370}}<ref name="wc" /> * "A Little More About Me".<ref name="west" /> Paperback: 304 pages, Publisher: Washington Square Press (October 1, 2000), {{ISBN|978-0743406338}}<ref name="wc" /> * "Sight Hound: A Novel". Paperback: 352 pages, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (January 17, 2006), {{ISBN|978-0393058178}}<ref name="wc" /> * "Contents May Have Shifted: A Novel".<ref name="contents" /><ref>[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA281923875&v=2.1&u=22396_largo&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=b2d833dd07786ef68ee5ef28927295f1 Cheuse, Alan. "Book Review: 'Contents May Have Shifted'." All Things Considered 13 Feb. 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. Gale Document Number: GALE|A281923875]</ref> Hardcover: 320 pages, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (February 6, 2012), {{ISBN|0393082652}}, {{ISBN|978-0393082654}}<ref name="wc">[http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3A%22houston%2C+pam%22&dblist=638&fq=ap%3A%22houston%2C+pam%22&qt=facet_ap%3A WorldCat author page. January 9, 2013]</ref> * ''Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country'', Hardcover: 288 pages, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, (January 29, 2019) {{ISBN|978-0393241020}}
== Education and interests == B.A. (Denison University, Granville, Ohio) 1983;<ref name="cao" /> M.A., University of Utah, 1992; Creative writing (fiction, nonfiction and plays), modernism, contemporary fiction, the short story, wilderness literature<ref>[http://english.ucdavis.edu/people/directory/plhousto Department of English - UC Davis profile]</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{official website|https://pamhouston.net/}} * ''<span class="plainlinks">[https://archive.org/details/LehighCarbonCommunityCollegesReadFirstAskLater Radio Interview with Pam Houston on "Read First, Ask Later" (Ep. 19)]</span>''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Pam}} Category:Living people Category:People from Trenton, New Jersey Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:American women short story writers Category:University of California, Davis faculty Category:1962 births Category:Writers from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American short story writers Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American women novelists