Scott Sanders

Scott Russell Sanders (born October 26, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American novelist and essayist. He grew up in northeastern Ohio, part of the time on a military base where his father, a civilian, worked in the administration, and part of the time on a small farm. This combination of settings, military and agricultural, shaped his first book of nonfiction, The Paradise of Bombs. He studied math, physics, and literature at Brown University, graduating first in his class in 1967.

Sanders has won acclaim for his skill as a personal essayist, with a focus on nature, community, and moral vision. He is the author of more than twenty books, which are listed below. A former contributing editor for Orion magazine, he has won numerous honors for his writing, including the Lannan Literary Award and the Associated Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction. A frequent public lecturer, Sanders also conducts writing workshops across the United States, from Florida to Alaska, and New York to Oregon. After earning a Ph.D. in literature at the University of Cambridge, in 1971 he joined the English faculty at Indiana University, where he received the Frederic Bachman Lieber Award for Distinguished Teaching, the university's highest teaching award. In 2012 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Sanders has served as judge for many literary prizes, including the 2016 Permafrost Book Prize in Nonfiction for Permafrost: Literary Journal.

In 2009, Sanders retired from Indiana University as a distinguished professor of English. During his career, he has spent sabbatical years as a writer-in-residence at Phillips Exeter Academy, and as a visiting professor at University of Oregon, MIT, and Beloit College. He is married to Ruth Ann McClure, a biochemist. They have two children, Eva and Jesse, both of whom he addresses in letters included in The Force of Spirit. Sanders and his wife live in Bloomington, Indiana, in the watershed of the White River.

Works

Fiction

Novels Terrarium (1985) Bad Man Ballad (1986) The Engineer of Beasts (1986) The Invisible Company (1989) Divine Animal (2014)

Short story collections Wilderness Plots (1983) Fetching the Dead (1984) Dancing in Dreamtime (2016) Small Marvels: Stories (2022)

Creative non-fiction/essays "Scott: Towards a Social Theory of Literature". Telos 18 (Winter 1973-74). New York: Telos Press. The Paradise of Bombs (1987) In Limestone Country (1991) Secrets of the Universe: Scenes from the Journey Home (1991) Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World (1993) Writing from the Center (1995) Hunting for Hope: A Father's Journeys (1998) The Country of Language (1999) The Force of Spirit (2000) A Private History of Awe (2006) A Conservationist Manifesto (2009) Earth Works: Selected Essays (2012) Stone Country: Then and Now (2017) The Way of Imagination: Essays (2020)

Children's books Hear the Wind Blow (1985) Aurora Means Dawn (1989) Warm as Wool (1992) Here Comes the Mystery Man (1993) Floating House (1995) Meeting Trees (1996) A Place Called Freedom (1997) Crawdad Creek (1999)

Honors Marshall Scholarship Guggenheim Fellowship Lannan Literary Award in Nonfiction National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing Associated Writers and Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction Ohioana Book Award in Nonfiction for Staying Put Great Lakes Book Award in Nonfiction for Writing from the Center Indiana Authors Award, National Winner Mark Twain Award from Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Cecil Woods, Jr. Award for Nonfiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers