Larry Woiwode

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Larry Alfred Woiwode (born October 30, 1941) is a distinguished American writer who lives in North Dakota, where he has been the state's Poet Laureate since 1995. His works have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review. He is the author of some eight novels; a book of poetry, Even Tide; and essays that have appeared in numerous publications.

His first novel, What I'm Going to Do, I Think (1969) won acclaim, and Beyond the Bedroom Wall (1975) sold over 2,000,000 copies. He has received two awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, has been awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, and the John Dos Passos Prize. He has been nominated for the National Book Award.

Born in Carrington, North Dakota, Woiwode left to live in New York where he was a professor and director of the SUNY-Binghamton Creative Writing Program. He spent several years living and working in the Chicago area before returning to North Dakota in 1978, where he lives in Mott and raises registered quarterhorses.

Appointed distinguished visiting professor at the University of North Dakota in January 2004, he was placed on paid leave in April 2005 so that he could get help with an alcohol problem (Associated Press, 4/16/05). He is currently a visiting professor at Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota. Woiwode is teaching a class in poetry writing and a class called "Spiritual Encounters in Contemporary Fiction".