Associate Professor
Coordinator of Creative Writing Concentration
Phone: (901) 678-4190
Email: kiversen@memphis.edu
Office: Patterson 428
www.kristeniversen.com

Education

B.A., 1981, University of Colorado
M.A., 1991, University of Denver
Ph.D., 1996, University of Denver

Academic Summary

Dr. Kristen Iversen teaches nonfiction and fiction, specializing in memoir and literary journalism. She is the author of three books: Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth; and a textbook, Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Reader's Disgest, Fourth Genre, and many other literary journals and publications. Iversen has appeared on C-Span and NPR's Fresh Air, and she has worked extensively with A&E Biography, The History Channel, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  She currently serves as Coordinator of the Creative Writing Concentration and has served as Faculty Editor of the award-winning literary journal The Pinch.

Select Publications

• Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats. Crown 2012. Starred review in Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist. Chosen as one of the Best Books of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews, Barnes & Nobel, and Mother Jones Magazine, and one of the Best Books About Justice by The Atlantic Monthly.
• Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. Prentice Hall, 2004. New edition, 2012.
• Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth. Johnson Books, 1999. (Winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction) Fourth Printing, 2009.

Selected Articles

• "How to be Tough in Creative Nonfiction." The Art of Friction II: (Meta)Writing in (Non)Fiction. Jill Talbot, ed. University of Iowa Press, 2012.
• "My Nuclear Neighborhood." Reader's Digest, July 2012.
• "The Dirty Secrets of Rocky Flats." The Nation, June 11, 2012.
• "Final Cut." Telling Stories Out of Court. Ruth O'Brien, ed. Cornell UP, 2008.
• Keep it Real: Everything You Need to Know about Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. Co-author, Lee Gutkind, et al, W.W. Norton, 2008.

Selected Documentaries

• Molly Brown: Biography of a Changing Nation. National Endowment for the Arts, 2008.
• Molly Brown. Great Museums (PBS). 2004: The History Channel, 2001.
• Molly Brown: An American Original. Arts and Entertainment (A&E) Biography, 1997.
• BBC: Picture This. "Full Body Burden and the Rocky Flats Story." November 2012.
• Reader's Digest. "My Nuclear Neighborhood." June 2012.