Linda Hasselstrom
Linda Hasselstrom is a poet, essayist, and working ranch woman who lives in Western South Dakota. Of the relationship between her writing and her work, she observes, "I believe one's work should complement the rest of one's life, and blend smoothly into a whole that keeps the physical body healthy while also working the mind. I work to bring my life into a circle: writing things I can respect, publishing work I respect, laboring at riding, branding, gardening, taking care of the land, and doing it all with an awareness of how those things fit together. More and more, as I grow older, I feel that it is important to keep my roots in this arid soil, to learn from it all I can, in order to continue to grow as a writer and as a human being."
Hasselstrom is the author of several books of poetry and nonfiction, including Caught By One Wing (poetry), Windbreak: A Woman Rancher on the Northern Plains (memoire), Going Over East: Reflections of a Woman Rancher (essays), Roadkill (poetry), Land Circle: Writings Collected From the Land (essays), Dakota Bones (poetry), The Roadside History of South Dakota (nonfiction), Feels Like Far (essays), and Bitter Creek Junction (poetry).
Her awards for her writing include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry and a South Dakota Arts Council literature fellowship. In 1990 she became the first woman to win a Western American Writer award.