Linda Hussa

Born in eastern Oregon in 1941, Linda Hussa lives in Surprise Valley, near the small town of Cedarville in northeastern California. She and her husband John, a third-generation rancher in their valley, raise cattle, sheep, horses, and the hay to feed them. Her writing interprets the landscape, the isolated nature of ranching and the relationships of Great Basin rural communities in poem and essay. She has authored the poetry collections”Tokens in a Graveyard” (Black Rock Press (2008), “Blood Sister I Am to These Fields” (Black Rock Press 2002), “Ride the Silence” (Black Rock Press 2001) and “Where the Wind Lives” (Gibbs Smith Publishers 1994) and received three national awards: the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Wrangler Award; the Spur Award, from Western Writers of America; and the Willa Cather Award from Women Writing the West. She also received the 1999 Nevada Writers’ Silver Pen.

Hussa’s nonfiction includes “The Family Ranch – Land, Children and Tradition in the American West” (Univeristy of Nevada Press (2009), “Sharing Fencelines” (University of Utah Press 2002) which elaborates on issues facing rural communities and their desert landscape; “Lige Langston: Sweet Iron” (1999) and “Diary of a Cowcamp Cook” (Sagebrush Press 1990).

An early contributor to Dry Crik Reveiw, Linda’s poetry can also be found in numerous anthologies. She has read her works for First Lady Laura Bush (2005), at the Library of Congress (1994), and at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering where she has also served on their Board of Directors.

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