Rick Bass

Rick Bass, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for his memoir Why I Came West and winner of The Story Prize, was born and raised in Texas, worked as a geologist in Mississippi, and has lived in Montana's Yaak Valley for almost four decades. His short fiction, which has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and The Paris Review, as well as numerous times in Best American Short Stories, has earned him multiple O. Henry Awards and Pushcart Prizes in addition to NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. He's on the faculty of the low-residency Stonecoast MFA program, and teaches writing workshops around the country. He's Executive Director of the Yaak Valley Forest Council and a member of The Montana Project, two organizations that will be co-hosting Climate Aid 2024: Keeping Cool Things Cool.