Kendra Atleework was born and raised on the dry eastern edge of California, at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains. She moved away for a decade, mostly spent being homesick and researching the place she left behind, the crucible of California’s water wars. Her first book, Miracle Country, is the the product of that time. It is the 2021 pick for the statewide program Nevada Reads and a winner of the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award.

“Atleework is that rare writer—capable of heart-stopping memoir while performing a work of keen observation and serious history. A work of stunning acuity and candor.”
– Patricia Hampl, author of The Art of the Wasted Day

Kendra holds an MFA in writing from the University of Minnesota. Her writing has appeared in Best American Essays, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers Award and lives in her hometown of Bishop, California, where she can be found roaming the mountains and desert and growing a big garden.

author website: www.atleework.com/
twitter: @KendraAtleework