brandon r. schrand

I have been invited to contribute an essay to Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art, published by the MFA Program at Columbia University in New York. Since 1977, Columbia has been publishing works by some of the greatest writers in the country and abroad. Notables include Raymond Carver, Jorge Luis Borges, Lorrie Moore, Louise Glück, Jane Kenyon, James Tate, Lydia Davis, Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, Phillip Lopate, Ha Jin, Jonathan Lethem, Italo Calvino, John D’Agata, Steve Almond, Paul Muldoon and many, many others.

The journal comes out anually, so look for my essay, “Fourteen Fragments on My Great Big Superfund Childhood,” in their Spring 2009 issue.

My essay, “The Bone Road,” is in the new issue of Shenandoah. Other writers in this edition include Ha Jin, David Kirby, Joyce Carol Oates, Albert Goldbarth, Margaret Gibson, Paul Zimmer, and many more. You can order a copy online or buy one at any fine bookstore.

The Enders Hotel received a very generous and thorough review at NewWest.com.

“Schrand. . . proves himself a top-notch yarn spinner with this richly described, poignant memoir.” –Jenny Shank, NewWest.com.

As a longtime subscriber to the High Country News, I was delighted to see my book get some traction in its pages. Review Excerpted below.

“Schrand’s personal story reflects larger cultural truths: The transitory lives of his grandfather and stepfather mirror those of the down-on-their luck drifters who gravitate to the hotel. . . Schrand’s memoir breaks new ground. . . [and] makes Soda Springs and towns like it finally matter.” –High Country News.

My essay, “Eleven Ways to Consider Air,” has just won the Pushcart Prize. The essay, which also won the 2006 Willard R. Espy Award, was first published in Ecotone, and will be reprinted in both the Pushcart Prize anthology, as well as in the forthcoming book, Borne on Air: Essays by Idaho Writers.

The Enders Hotel has garnered a Starred Review from Booklist. Here is what they have to say about the book:

I’ve excerpted parts of my first review below:

Since 1919, the three-story brick hotel, complete with cafe and bar, has anchored downtown Soda Springs, the prosperity of which has always been tied to the notorious vicissitudes of mining, farming and ranching… For a young child, the hotel exerted a certain kind of magic, which Schrand effectively captures in his reminiscences… Holding the enterprise—and to a large extent, young Schrand’s life—together were his grandparents, whose charity and decency reassured a boy who never knew his father. As Schrand grew older, work and responsibilities mounted, as did the feeling that the hotel might be a failing venture. He worked out his resentment and anger in acts of gratuitous cruelty and petty vandalism that threatened to mark him for a future not so different from the dead-enders the hotel often sheltered.

An evocative account of a man coming to terms with his youth.–Kirkus Reviews

Drunken Boat, the hip and trend-setting online literary/art journal has released its ninth issue at long last. It is dedicated almost exlcusively to their Pan-Literary Award Winning Finalists of which I was one. My essay, “Collusion,” is an excerpt from my memoir, The Enders Hotel, and you can read it by visiting their site and clicking on my name under NONFICTION.

I was recently interviewed about my book for the University of Idaho’s student-run newspaper, the Argonaut.  It was an enjoyable interview mostly because the reporter was so thoughtful and gracious. You can read the whole thing online by clicking here.

Utah State University, the school where I earned my master’s degree, has given me some good press recently. You can check out the article/interview at Utah State Today under the “Highlights” section, or you can just click here to read the story.