Debra Magpie Earling, a professor of fiction and a member of the Bitterroot Salish Tribe, has been named the new director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Montana; she is the first Native American to hold the position since the program’s founding in 1920. Earling is the author of the books Perma Red, winner of the American Book Award, and The Lost Journals of Sacajawea. She is also past Guggenheim Foundation grant recipient.

At the welcome ceremony, held at the university’s Payne Native American Center, Earling said, “Missoula is a storied community and the stories of the long-ago Salish who occupied this particular place remain here. This is Indian country and Bitterroot Salish traditional land. I am honored to be the first Native American director of one of the oldest writing programs in the country and privileged to welcome a new generation of storytellers.”

Speaking at the ceremony, university president Royce Engstrom praised Magpie Earling’s work as a “profound contribution to creative literature of the West.”

Photo Credit: University of Montana