Patricia Karamesines: Mormon Writer

Patricia Gunter Karamesines is a poet, essayist, and novelist whose work has won literary awards from the Utah Arts Council the Utah Wilderness Association, the University of Arizona, the Association for Mormon Letters, Brigham Young University, and others. She is also a folklorist, editor, and literary critic.

She was reared in the rural Virginia countryside. She earned her master’s degree in creative writing from BYU; her professors included Arthur Henry King and Leslie Norris. She pursued post-graduate studies in folklore and linguistics at the University of Arizona.

She is a literary nature journalist by nature and writes often about the natural world. Her poetry includes, “The Pear Tree,” “The Orchid Grower,” Canyon Cliff Swallows,” “The Luna Moth Sonnets,” “Pillbug,” and “Open Range, Wyoming.” She is the author of The Pictograph Murders. She also writes for the blog Motley Vision and writes the Wilderness Interface Zone blog.

She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and her husband, Mark, are the parents of three children.