• Creative writing-fiction and nonfiction
• Memoir

Books:

• In the Kingdom of Men, (novel), Knopf 2012.
• A Country Called Home (novel), Knopf 2008; Vintage 2009; large-print edition, Point Publishing, 2009.
• Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty. Doubleday 2006 (ed. with Claire Davis).
• Finding Caruso (novel). New York: Putnam/Marian Wood Books, 2003; Berkley Signature 2004.
• Hungry for the World (memoir). New York: Villard, 2000; Anchor, 2001.
• Odemarker (In the Wilderness).  Stockholm: Norstedts Forlag, 2008.
• In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country (memoir). New York: Doubleday, 1996; Anchor, 1997.
• Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Western Women Writers. Kim Barnes and Mary Clearman Blew, editors. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. 

Periodicals and Anthologies:

• “Contemporary Notes from the Last American Frontier (essay), forthcoming in West of 98, an anthology edited by Russell Rowland Lynn Stegner, 2010-2011.
• “Mad in Love” (essay), forthcoming in O Magazine, October 2009.
• Tribute to Carol Houck Smith, The Idaho Review, 2009.
• “The Ashes of August” (with interview) in Creating Nonfiction: A Guide and Anthology (eds. Becky Bradway and Doug Hesse, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009).
• “The Wages of Sin: A Personal History of Economics,” an essay in The Secret Currency of Love: The Unabashed Truth About Women, Money, and Relationships  (ed. Hilary Black, William Morrow Publishers, 2009).
• Original essay on influence of Toni Morrison and excerpt from A Country Called Home in The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Contemporary Women Writers on Forerunners in Fiction (eds. Jacqueline Kolosov and Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Lewis-Clark Press, 2008).
• “On Place,” The Writer, November 2007.
• “My Fair Student,” an essay in The Honeymoon’s Over:  Women on Love and Marriage (eds. Sally Wofford-Girand and Andrea Chapin, Warner Books, 2007)
• "Work," an essay in Short Takes (ed. Judith Kitchen, Norton, 2005) and Iron Horse Literary Review (2006).
• "An Apartment of Her Own," an essay MORE Magazine  (July/August 2006) and Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty, Doubleday, 2006.
• "Almost Paradise," an essay in High Desert Journal (Spring 2005); Landscapes with Figures: The Nonfiction of Place (Robert Root, editor, University of Nebraska); and Borne on Air (Mary Clearman Blew and Phil Druker, editors) Eastern Washington University Press, 2009.

• PEN Center USA Literary Award for Fiction 2009 (A Country Called Home)
• Marie Claire magazine:  November Book Club pick, 2009 (A Country Called Home)
• The Washington Post:  Best Books of 2008 (A Country Called Home)
• The Oregonian:  Best Northwest Books of 2008 (A Country Called Home)
• Kansas City Star:  Best Books of 2008 (A Country Called Home)
• Book-of-the-Month Club main selection/100 Bestsellers, Fall 2009 (A Country Called Home)
• Idaho Writer-in-Residence, 2004-2007
• KTVB “Seven’s Selections”:  Finding Caruso, 2003
• Pushcart Prize for “The Ashes of August” (essay), 2002
• Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship, 2001
• Borders Books New Voices selection, Hungry for the World, 2001
• Finalist, Heekin Group Foundation Fellowship for a novel-in-progress, 1998
• Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (Autobiography/Biography), 1997
• Finalist, PEN/Martha Albrand Award, 1995
• New Visions Award Finalist for In the Wilderness, Quality Paperback Book Club, 1997
• Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for In the Wilderness, 1997
• Idaho Library Association, Honorable Mention for Literary Merit/Idaho Book Award, 1997
• Academy of American Poets Prize, University of Montana, 1995
• PEN/Jerard Award for an emerging woman writer of nonfiction, 1995
• Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship, 1991

Teaching Honors and Awards: 

• Award of Excellence, University of Idaho Alumni Association, 2006.
• Honorary Distinguished Visiting Professor, Oregon State University-Cascades, 2006.
• Lewis-Clark State Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1997.