Clay Morgan

Clay Morgan is a writer.  His works include the novels Santiago and the Drinking Party (Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award) and The Boy Who Spoke Dog (VOYA award, ten state reading lists), two photo-essay books, and NASA’s official history of the Shuttle-Mir space station program with the Russians.  He collected oral histories after the Columbia space shuttle accident, and was awarded NASA’s Public Service Medal, which “recognizes exceptional contributions to NASA's mission.”  Morgan served as Poet in the Schools and Writer in Residence for the State of Idaho, and was the first writer to receive the Governor’s Award in the Arts. He produced over 50 commentaries for NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Morgan also directed Boise State University’s Story Initiative, which explored the phenomenon of Story and how Story works in our minds and our lives, and he taught an intellectual foundations course in Story, to incoming freshmen.  Morgan co-founded Story Story Night, the popular storytelling evening in downtown Boise.  When he was younger, Morgan served as a Forest Service Smokejumper, parachuting to fight wildfires in the western US and Alaska.