Hans Ostrom

Hans Ansgar Ostrom (born January 29, 1954) is an American professor, writer, editor, and scholar. Ostrom is a Professor of African American Studies and English the University of Puget Sound (1983–present) where he teaches courses on African American literature, creative writing, and poetry as a genre. He is known for his authorship of various books on African American studies and creative writing, and novels including Three to Get Ready, Honoring Juanita, and Without One, as well as The Coast Starlight: Collected Poems 1976-2006.

Ostrom was born in Sierra City, CA, on January 19, 1954. Ostrom attended Sierra Community College for two years, then transferred to University of California, Davis, where he completed his B.A. (1975) and M.A. (1979) with a major in English. He completed his Ph.D. in English in 1982, also from University of California, Davis. Ostrom began teaching composition at University of California, Davis in 1979, and taught American Studies and English language courses at Gutenberg University in Germany from 1980-1981. He joined the faculty at the University of Puget Sound in 1983. Ostrom has served as co-director of African American Studies and Chair of the English Department.

Ostrom’s poetry has appeared in American and British literary journals since 1979. Praise for Ostrom’s work includes recognition from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Karl Shapiro, who characterized the poems in The Coast Starlight: Collected Poems 1979-2006 as “genuine American poetry at its best.” With Wendy Bishop, Ostrom edited an influential collection of essays on teaching creative writing: Colors of a Different Horse: Rethinking Creative Writing Theory and Pedagogy. Ostrom’s published fiction includes the mystery novel Three to Get Ready, which is being adapted to film under the title Napa, starring Rose McGowan. In the field of African American studies, Ostrom has published two books on Langston Hughes and co-edited the five-volume Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Studies. Ostrom’s academic publications include Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction, A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia, and the Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature (5 vols.), edited with J. David Macey. He has also published articles on the works of Rudolph Fisher, Elizabeth Bishop, William Blake, and George Meredith. Ostrom’s poems and short fiction have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. He has published three novels: Three to Get Ready, Honoring Juanita, and Without One, as well as The Coast Starlight: Collected Poems 1976-2006.

President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching at the University of Puget Sound.

Fulbright Lecturer, Uppsala University of Puget Sound.

• Hans Ostrom, The Coast Starlight: Collected Poems 1976-2006 (Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing, 2006) ISBN 978-1-59858-102-7
• Hans Ostrom, Honoring Juanita (Congruent Angle Press, 2010). http://www.amazon.com/Honoring-Juanita-Hans-Ostrom/dp/0984417508/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273801334&sr=1-2
• Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, editors, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2005): 5 volumes.
• Hans Ostrom, A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002);
• Hans Ostrom, Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction (New York: Twayne, 1993);
• Hans Ostrom, Wendy Bishop, Katharine Haake, Metro: Journeys in Writing Creatively (New York: Longman, 2001);
• Hans Ostrom, Subjects Apprehended (Johnstown, Ohio: Pudding House Press, 2000);
• Hans Ostrom, Three to Get Ready (Oakland: Cliffhanger, 1991).
• Wendy Bishop and Hans Ostrom, editors, The Subject Is Story: Essays for Writers and Readers (Boyton-Cook/Heineman, 2003).
• Hans Ostrom, "To War Again" (poem), Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought http://www.perspectivesjournal.org/2004/01/poetry.html
• Hans Ostrom, "The Green Bird" (short story), Ploughshares (Winter 1986): http://web.archive.org/web/20070930153621/https://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=2256
• "Guest Post: Hans Ostrom on the Next Decade in Book Culture", Critical Mass, Jan-08-2010
• Hans Ostrom, Without One: A Novel" (Congruent Angle Press, 2012). [1]