Emily Ruskovich, an assistant professor in the graduate program in creative writing at Boise State University in Idaho, received the 2017 Pacific Northwest Book Award in the fiction category for her debut novel Idaho (Random House, 2017). The awards are presented by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, a nonprofit trade association of book retailers.
In discussing Idaho, The New York Times Book Review wrote that “you know you’re in masterly hands here. Ruskovich’s language is itself a consolation, as she subtly posits the troubling thought that only decency can save us.” The Washington Post reviewer wrote that “Idaho is a powerful and moving book, an impressive debut that portends good, even great, things to come.”
Ruskovich grew up in Athol in northern Idaho. She graduated from the University of Montana and received a master’s degree in English from the University of New Brunswick in Canada. She holds a master of fine arts degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Ruskovich was the 2011–2012 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She then taught at the University of Colorado at Denver.