Jerry Dennis

Jerry Dennis (born 1954 in Flint, Michigan) is an American writer of nonfiction and short fiction. He grew up in rural northern Michigan and is known for writing about the places where nature and human culture intersect.

Contents: 1 Life and work 2 Awards and honors 3 Works 3.1 Books 3.2 Essays 3.3 Short Fiction 4 References

Life and work: Dennis received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Louisville in 1981, after attending Northern Michigan University and Northwestern Michigan College. After graduating he worked as a carpenter for five years while establishing himself as a book author and magazine writer. He has earned his living as a writer since 1986, writing for more than 100 publications, including The New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon, Sports Afield, Field and Stream, American Way, and many others, including literary magazines such as Epoch, Witness, Mid-American Review, Pank, and Michigan Quarterly Review. Throughout the 1990s he wrote regular columns for Wildlife Conservation Magazine, the publication of Wildlife Conservation International and the Bronx Zoo, and Canoe and Kayak Magazine. Journalistic assignments sent him abroad to Iceland, Chile, and extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada. Since 2000 he has been on the faculty of the University of Michigan’s Bear River Writers Conference, where he teaches creative non-fiction and nature writing.

Books: • The Windward Shore (2011) • The Living Great Lakes (2004) • Leelanau: A Portrait of Place (2000) • From a Wooden Canoe (1999, 2014) • The River Home (1998, 2013) • The Bird in the Waterfall (1996, 2014) • A Place on the Water (1993, 2013) • It's Raining Frogs and Fishes (1992, 2013) • The Best Bicycle Tours of Eastern Canada (1992) • Canoeing Michigan Rivers (1986, 2001, 2013)

Awards and honors: • 2004 Michigan Notable Books • 2004 Sigurd Olsen Nature Writing Award • 2004 Great Lakes Culture Best Book Award Non-Fiction • 2004 The Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature • 2003 Alumni Fellows Award, University of Louisville, College of Arts and Sciences • 1999 Michigan Author of the Year • 1993, 1996, 1998, and 2003 Best Book of the Year awarded by Outdoor Writers Association of America.

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