Brandon Schrand ("The Enders Hotel") just emailed me the link to a great new interview with Idaho writer Kim Barnes, who will be teaching at the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, July 12-19, 2009.

If you're one of the final two people in the literary world unfamiliar with Barnes's work, she is the author of the novel "Finding Caruso" and two memoirs: "In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country," winner of the PEN/Jerard Award and finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize; and a "Hungry for the World." She is the co-editor of several anthologies, and her essays, stories, and poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Fourth Genre, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. She teaches writing at the University of Idaho and lives with her husband, the poet Robert Wrigley, on Moscow Mountain.

Her newest novel, "A Country Called Home," has just been released by Knopf.

Barnes is also one of the finest teachers of writing in the country. We're ecstatic to have her here in 2009. Registration for all Centrum writers' workshops will open in eight days, including Barnes's workshop in creative nonfiction.