PETER CHILSON teaches writing and literature at Washington State University. In 2012, on assignment for Foreign Policy magazine, he was one of the first Western journalists to travel the new border with the short-lived jihadist state in northern Mali, in West Africa. He is the author of the e-book We Never Knew Exactly Where: Dispatches from the Lost Country of Mali (Foreign Policy 2013), Disturbance-Loving Species: A Novella and Stories ( Mariner Books 2007), and Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa (University of Georgia Press 1998). His work has appeared in Audubon, Ascent, The American Scholar, Creative Nonfiction, Foreign Policy, Fourth Genre, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. HIs travel essays appeared twice in Best American Travel Writing. He is a recipient of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize in Short Fiction (2007)and the AWP Creative Nonfiction Book Award (1998).

Website: www.peterchilson.com

Publications

• We Never Knew Exactly Where: Dispatches from the Lost Country of Mali , Foreign Policy Magazine/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (January 8, 2013)
• Disturbance-Loving Species , Mariner Books (November 1, 2007)
• Riding The Demon: On the Road in West Africa , University of Georgia Press (March 1, 1998)

Awards

• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Grant(2012)
• Maria Thomas Fiction Prize(2008)
• Bread Loaf Katherine Bakeless Nason Prize in Short Fiction(2006)
• Associated Writing Programs Book Award in Creative Nonfiction(1997)

Employment

• Professor of English at Washington State University (August 1997 - )
• Associate Editor at High Country News (April 1997 - April 1998)

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Pennsylvania State University (May 1994)
• Bachelor of Arts in International Relations/Journalism from Syracuse University (May 1984)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction