Profile

Tommy Orange’s debut novel, There There (Knopf), was a New York Times bestseller and named as one of the paper’s 10 Best Books of the Year for 2018. Its many honors include the 2018 PEN America Hemingway Award, The National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California. He earned his MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he now serves as faculty. 

Wendy C. Ortiz

Visiting CNF Writer, Summer 2019

Patricia Smith

Faculty, Postgraduate Writers' Conference; Visiting Poet, Winter 2023

Garrett Hongo

Visiting Poet, Summer 2019

Samantha Hunt

Visting Fiction Writer, MFA in Writing

Major Jackson

Distinguished Visiting Poet, Winter 2016

Mary Cappello

Visiting Creative Nonfiction Writer, Summer 2017