Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, as well as five other books including the novel Contents May Have Shifted and the short story collection Cowboys Are My Weakness, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards. She teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level on a 120 acre homestead near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.