This just in from Beth Loffreda, director of the MFA creative writing program at UW:Mark Jenkins is joining UW's MFA faculty as a writer in residence. Mark lives here in Laramie, and he’s currently a contributing writer for National Geographic, and he has had a long and brilliant career as an adventure/travel/nature writer for a range of magazines—Outside (where he wrote “The Hard Way” column for many years), GQ, Men’s Health, Sierra, and many others. He’s the author of several books, including To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger, and A Man’s Life:Dispatches from Dangerous Places, and his work has been anthologized widely.
Mark grew up in Wyoming and attended UW. He’s known not only for his nonfiction but also for his expeditions into the world's last remote regions, which include the 2nd American ascent of Mt. Xixabangma, Tibet (1984), the U.S. Everest North Face Expedition (1986), the 1st ascent of the highest peaks in the Arctic Circle (1988), the 1st coast-to-coast crossing of the former Soviet Union by bicycle (1989), the 1st descent of the Niger River headwaters, West Africa (1991), the 1st ascent of the Peak Rawu, Tibet (1993), first ascent of the South Face of Mt. Waddington, Canada (1995) and the first ascent of the West Face Direct of Margherita, the highest peak in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda. That’s an incomplete list, but you get the idea.
Mark’s will be associated with the MFA, International Studies, ENR, and the Outdoor Adventure program. Mark will remain a full-time magazine writer and global correspondent, so he’ll work with MFA students when he can. Mark’s an extraordinary resource for students interested in magazine writing, freelancing, travel writing, nonfiction aesthetics and ethics, etc, etc (the list is long). He’s approachable, funny, very candid, and very sharp.
(WAC note: Mark is part of very distinguished group of WAC fellowship recipients who have twice been so rewarded. Mark received a fellowship in 1989, and again in 1994).
