Larry Watson

Biography

Larry Watson was born in 1947 in Rugby, North Dakota. He grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, and was educated in its public schools. Larry married his high school sweetheart, Susan Gibbons, in 1967. He received his BA and MA from the University of North Dakota, his Ph.D. from the creative writing program at the University of Utah , and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Ripon College. Watson has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1987, 2004) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Larry Watson is the author of the novels In a Dark Time, Montana, 1948, White Crosses, Laura, and Orchard; the fiction collection Justice; and the chapbook of poetry Leaving Dakota. Watson's fiction has been published in more than ten foreign editions, and has received prizes and awards from Milkweed Press, Friends of American Writers, Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association, New York Public Library, Wisconsin Library Association, and Critics' Choice. Montana, 1948 was nominated for the first IMPAC Dublin international literary prize. He has published short stories and poems in many literary journals, and written book reviews and essays for Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and other periodicals.

Watson taught writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for twenty-five years before joining the faculty at Marquette University in 2003 as a Visiting Professor. He has also taught and participated in writer's conferences in Colorado , Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, St. Malo and Caen, France .

He and his wife Susan live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They have two daughters, Elly and Amy, and two grandchildren, Theodore and Abigail.

Montana 1948

The events of that small-town summer forever alter David Hayden's view of his family: his self-effacing father, a sheriff who never wears his badge; his clear-sighted mother; his uncle, a charming war hero and respected doctor; and the Haydens' lively, statuesque Sioux housekeeper, Marie Little Soldier, whose revelations are at the heart of the story. It is a tale of love and courage, of power abused, and of the terrible choice between family loyalty and justice.

Other Books by Larry Watson

In a Dark Time. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980; rep., Washington Square

Press, 1998.

Justice. Washington Square Press, 1998.

Laura . Washington Square Press, 2001.

Orchard: A Novel . Random House, 2003.

White Crosses . Pocket Books, 1997.

Website Links:

Discussion questions

http://www.simonsays.com/content/
book.cfm?sid=33&pid=404713&agid=10

Watson's Official Website

http://larry-watson.com