Ann Ronald
Ann Ronald grew up in the Pacific Northwest. The family photo album shows her on her first pair of skis when she was three years old, carrying her first backpack when she was nine. Her enthusiasm for untracked scenery has never wavered. Graduating from Whitman College with a B.A. in 1961, and from the University of Colorado with an M.A. in 1966, she then managed to survive away from the West long enough to complete her Ph.D. at Northwestern University in 1970. After that brief Illinois exile, she promised herself she would never live east of the Rockies again. So far, she’s kept her vow. Fortunately, she found a job at the University of Nevada, Reno, as soon as she finished graduate school. She’s worked at UNR ever since, first as an English professor, later as dean of the College of Arts and Science, and now as an English professor again.
From the first seminar paper she ever wrote, her dissertation, the first article she ever published, her first book, her last book, all the articles in between, and the book she is writing right now, Ann Ronald’s work has always focused on landscape. Best known for her book on Edward Abbey, The New West of Edward Abbey, she also has written a Zane Grey monograph and a study of nineteen-century British fiction, Functions of Setting in the Novel. She edited a Sierra Club totebook titled Words for the Wild, and joined with photographer Stephen Trimble to produce a book of photos and essays called Earthtones: A Nevada Album. She has published numerous articles of literary criticism on a number of English and American authors; some of those essays are collected in Reader of the Purple Sage. Lately she has been publishing more creative essays of her own. GhostWest: Reflections Past and Present examines places in the West which define themselves in terms of their past histories. Her newest book, Oh, Give Me A Home, muses about how our actions in the American West today may influence the ways in which future generations will perceive this special place.
At the University of Nevada, Reno, Ann Ronald teaches a variety of upper division and graduate courses in both British and American literature. Partial retirement means she only teaches during the spring semesters, but she regularly offers a graduate seminar in Creative Nature Writing plus undergraduate courses Western American Writers, Major Environmental Texts, Western Women Writers, and American Autobiography. Her long-standing interest in the American West has coincided with her active participation in the Western Literature Association. She served as president of that organization in 1984 and was Executive Secretary for ten years. She received the WLA’s Wylder Award for Distinguished Service in 1999.
A Foundation Professor at the University of Nevada Reno , Ann Ronald was named the university’s Outstanding Researcher in 2005. She was elected to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2006. Despite her active professional career, Ann Ronald has never given up her enthusiasm for landscape and the out-of-doors. This year she backpacked in the High Sierra and hiked hut-to-hut in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Next year she plans more such high-country trips.
For more information about Ann, or the programs with which she is involved, please feel free to e-mail her. Read another profile of Ann--and view more photos here.