Robert F. Gish

BIOGRAPHY

Robert F. Gish is the author of nearly twenty works of fiction, memoir, folktales, literary biographies and numerous monographs and essays on the literature, history, and culture of the American Southwest.

His story collections include West Bound: Stories of Providence (2005), Bad Boys and Black Sheep: Fateful Stories from the West (1996), Dreams of Quivira: Stories in Search of the Golden West (1996), When Coyote Howls: A Lavaland Fable (1994), and First Horses: Stories of the New West (1993). He also has written a memoir of growing up in the West, Songs of My Hunter Heart: A Western Kinship (1992), and a collection of cross-cultural essays, Beyond Bounds: Anglo, Chicano, and Native American Literature (1996). His literary biographies include Frontier’s End: The Life and Literature of Harvey Fergusson (1988), and Beautiful Swift Fox: Erna Fergusson and the Modern Southwest (1996).

Critical-analytical studies include Paul Horgan (1983), Nueva Granada: Paul Horgan and the Southwest (1995), William Carlos Williams: The Short Fiction (1989), and Hamlin Garland: The Far West (1976). Gish is a contributing editor to The Bloomsbury Review, The American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and Jazz Inside Magazine.

He taught at the University of Northern Iowa from 1967-1991, where he was University Distinguished Scholar and Professor of English. He served as Director of Ethnic Studies and Professor of English and Ethnic Studies at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo from 1991-2001.

He holds B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in English and American Studies from the University of New Mexico. He is the recipient of the Erna Fergusson Distinguished Alumni Award from UNM. Of Cherokee-Anglo American descent, Gish is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Pen West, the Authors Guild, and the Screen Actors Guild. He lives with his wife, Judith, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gish and his wife are the parents of three children and have seven grandchildren. He is a jazz guitarist and vocalist.