About
Nicholas O’Connell (born March, 1957) is an American journalist, novelist, editor and publisher of The Writer’s Workshop Review, an online literary magazine and founder of The Writer’s Workshop, an on-campus and online writing program based in Seattle.
Biography:
O’Connell was born in Seattle, Washington. He attended Amherst College (A.B. in French) and the University of Washington (MFA, 1985, in Creative Writing, Ph.D. in English, 1996).
He worked as a journalist for the Associated Press in 1980 before joining the Whidbey News Times in Oak Harbor, Washington (1980-81). While there, he won many Society of Professional Journalist awards, including a First Place for Feature Story Writing in 1981. He worked as a general assignment reporter for the Ellensburg Daily-Record (1981-82) in Ellensburg, Washington. He won a First Place for Magazine Travel Writing in 2007.
He served as a copy editor for Outdoor Empire Publishing (1982-1994) while freelancing for many publications including, Newsweek, Gourmet, Saveur, Outside, GO, National Geographic Adventure, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sierra, The Wine Spectator, Commonweal, Image and many other places.
He was a fiction editor of the Seattle Review (1983-1989) and is currently the publisher/ editor of the online literary magazine, The Writer’s Workshop Review.
Bibliography:
Novels
The Storms of Denali (2012)
Nonfiction
On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Pacific Northwest Literature (2003)
At the Field's End: Interviews with 22 Pacific Northwest Writers (1998)
Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers (1993)
Books Edited by Nicholas O’Connell
Special Northwest Edition, Seattle Review (1987)
Awards
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award
Washington Governor’s Award
Society of Professional Journalists Award for Travel Writing
Society of Professional Journalists Award for Feature Writing
Magazines edited by Nicholas O’Connell
Copy editor Outdoor Empire Publishing (1982-1994)
Publisher/ editor of The Writer’s Workshop Review (2008-present)
Nicholas O’Connell, M.F.A, Ph.D., is the author of The Storms of Denali (University of Alaska Press, 2012), On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Pacific Northwest Literature (University of Washington Press, 2003), At the Field’s End: Interviews with 22 Pacific Northwest Writers (University of Washington Press Press, 1998), Contemporary Ecofiction (Charles Scribner’s, 1996) and Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers (Mountaineers, 1993). He has contributed to Newsweek, Gourmet, Saveur, Outside, GO, National Geographic Adventure, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sierra, The Wine Spectator, Commonweal, Image and many other places. He is the publisher/editor of The Writer’s Workshop Review and the founder of the online and Seattle-based writing program, www.thewritersworkshop.net.
Featured Work
The Storms of Denali
Soaring 20,320 feet into the thin Arctic air, Denali is the highest and coldest summit in North America and one of the most coveted mountaineering prizes on the planet. In this novel of adventure, adversity, and ambition by renowned climber and writer Nicholas O’Connell, four men set out to conquer it. Among the sharply drawn team members is narrator John Walker, a family man torn between domestic stability and mountaineering’s dangerous, alluring glory. During the ascent the group battles avalanches, fierce winds, and mind-numbing cold before it splinters, leading inexorably to tragedy.
Throughout the book, the author’s first-hand experience brings to life the formidable challenges and otherworldly beauty of the mountain as well as the bonds formed and broken in the pursuit of its summit. Beyond the physical tolls, O’Connell dramatizes the team’s intense, high-stakes debate about the riskiness the climb, made all the more treacherous by taking place at the extreme northern pole of the planet.
