Kristen Iversen , PhD

Kristen Iversen holds a Ph.D in English and Creative Writing from the University of Denver (1996). She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literary nonfiction and fiction, and also serves as Literary Nonfiction Editor of The Cincinnati Review and faculty editor of the undergraduate journal Short Vine. She is the author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, an award-winning work currently being adapted into a documentary. Her other books include Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth; Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction; and the anthologies Doom with a View, Don’t Look Now, and When I Knew. She is a Fulbright Scholar (2021-2022), a NEH Public Scholar (2025-2026), and a Leon Levy/Alfred P. Sloan fellow at CUNY (2025-2026). Iversen is working on a biography of Nikola Tesla entitled Friend and Faithful Stranger: Nikola Tesla in the Gilded Age. Iversen’s work has been published in the New York Times, American Scholar, The Nation, Fourth Genre, and other publications, and she has appeared on PBS, C-Span, NPR’s Fresh Air, and BBC World Outlook.
See www.kristeniversen.com
 

PhD: University of Denver 1996 (English/Creative Writing)

MA: University of Denver 1991 (English/Creative Writing)

BA: University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, 1981 (English/Creative Writing)

Mittelstufe Certificate: Goethe Universitat Frankfurt, Germany, 1989 (German language and literature)

Literary Nonfiction, Narrative Nonfiction, Fiction

2014 -To Present Professor, University of Cincinnati,

2003 -2014 Professor, University of Memphis,

2000 -2003 Assistant Professor, San Jose State University,

1999 -2000 Visiting Professor, Metropolitan State College of Denver,

1997 -1999 Book Editor, Westcliffe Publishers, Denver, Colorado

1984 -1988 Travel Writer based in Europe,

1982 -1984 Magazine Editor, MGM Publishing, San Jose, California

1996 -1998 Adjunct Professor, MFA Program, Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado

Published Books

(2012. ) Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats .New York; UK; China; Japan (hardback, paperback, audio) , Crown/Random House (Author)

(1999. ) Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth .Big Earth Books (Author)

(2004. ) Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction .Pearson/Prentice Hall (Author)

(2020. ) Doom with a View: Historical and Cultural Contexts of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant .Fulcrum Books (Editor)

(2020. ) Don't Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn't Seen .Mad Creek Books (OSU Press) (Co-Editor)

(2020. ) Friend and Faithful Stranger: The Untold Story of Nikola Tesla . (Author)

(2020. ) Wide and Generous World: New and Published Essays . (Author)

2014 The Alumni Award for Creative and Academic Achievement, The University of Memphis

2012 Colorado Book Award for Nonfiction, Reading the West Award for Nonfiction, Barnes and Noble "Great New Writer" Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

2013 Award for Journalistic Excellence The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Wash. D.C.

2011 Louise Eisenhardt Award for Creative and Academic Achievement

2004 Colorado Endowment for the Humanities Literature Prize

2000 Colorado Book Award for Biography, Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth

2020 -2021 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bergen, Norway

Nonfiction, Fiction

Graduate and undergraduate courses in Literary Nonfiction, Creative Writing and Research, Creative Writing and the Environment, Creative Writing and Literary Publishing, The Essay, Fiction, Writing the Mystery

CV 2022 Kristen Iversen

iversekn@ucmail.uc.edu