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CU Boulder alumni David Gessner and Nina de Gramont have succeeded both as authors and teachers

For a couple of writers who also happen to be a writing couple, David Gessner and Nina de Gramont admit they鈥檝e got it pretty good.听

Gessner (MA, Engl鈥�98) is professor and chair of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and published nine books, including the New York Times bestseller听.

De Gramont鈥攚ho began her master鈥檚 degree in the University of Colorado Boulder creative writing program and completed it at UNCW鈥攊s an associate professor in the same department and has published eight works of fiction for both young adults and adults, including the novel听.听

鈥淲e are lucky to be where we are,鈥� says Gessner.

But the couple, who have also lived on Cape Cod鈥攖he subject of Gessner鈥檚 highly praised听鈥攃onfess a sneaking desire to return one day to their favorite place.

鈥淏oulder is still our shining city on a hill, despite the real-estate prices,鈥� Gessner says.听

But for now, they are content to visit for a month each summer with their teenage daughter, Hadley (鈥淵es,鈥� de Gramont answers, anticipating a question before it鈥檚 asked, she was named primarily in honor of Ernest Hemingway鈥檚 first wife, Hadley Richardson), where they relish riding their bikes up actual hills.

Gessner and de Gramont met in CU鈥檚 creative writing master鈥檚 degree program in the 1990s. They acknowledge that the program鈥檚 somewhat experimental emphasis didn鈥檛 quite match their own, more traditional narrative approaches, but they found their places nonetheless.

鈥淚 tend to be a very obedient student, so I started writing things that were really out there. It was helpful for me to have that, actually. When I returned to what came more naturally to me, I had a better grasp of how to use language and how to use form,鈥� says de Gramont, who cites Marilyn Krisl and Suzanne Juhasz as influential faculty members.

鈥淚t was sort of a mismatch for me, very experimental. (Program faculty) tended to turn their noses up at any whiff of narrative,鈥� he says.听

Gessner cites Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, Terry Tempest Williams and Philip Roth as early influences: 鈥淎bbey was one of my earliest models. I liked the way he could re-create his personality on the page. You can鈥檛 wave hands or use voice to create that. It鈥檚 an underrated ability.鈥�

He gravitated toward three faculty members whose work focused more on place and nature, writers Reg Saner and Linda Hogan and English professor Marty Bickman. He also reveled in his life in Boulder鈥攁nd publishing a cheeky comic strip, 鈥淭he Ballad of Boulder,鈥� in the Boulder Weekly鈥攊n the wake of recovery from testicular cancer. Gessner鈥檚 early memoir,听, explores his new life in the West, what Stegner called, 鈥渢he geography of hope.鈥澨�

鈥淚t was about my awakening and coming back to health, having time to write in a stunningly beautiful place, Eldorado Springs,鈥� Gessner says. He knocked the book out in a month and a half, setting a pattern for future writing projects. 鈥淚 build, build, build, then blast them out.鈥�

With the pending publication of听A Wild, Rank Place听in 1997,听Gessner decided that 鈥渋t wouldn鈥檛 do for a Cape Cod nature writer to be living in Colorado,鈥� and the couple moved to his mother鈥檚 empty house on the Cape.

鈥淭hat was both a romantic time and a crazy-making time. People think Cape Cod is all about Kennedys and rich folk, but in February, it鈥檚 more like the Arctic,鈥� Gessner says. 鈥淔or us, it was a great and fruitful writing period.鈥�

De Gramont sold her first book while living on Cape Cod, the short-story collection听, winner of the Discovery Award from the New England Booksellers Association. Gessner, meanwhile, was writing听, judged a 鈥渃lassic of American nature writing鈥� by the Boston Globe.

Gessner also began commuting two hours to teach in the extension and summer writing programs at his alma mater, Harvard, where he would later create the school鈥檚 creative nonfiction writing program. When he was named to a Briggs-Copeland Lectureship at Harvard, the couple moved to Cambridge, taking up residence in the apartment of the late Irish playwright and poet Seamus Heaney and welcoming Hadley to the family.

In 2002, following the success of听Return of the Osprey, UNCW invited Gessner to interview for a job in its Creative Writing Department. He got the job, and the couple has lived there ever since.

鈥淲e鈥檙e always angsting a little bit, 鈥榃hy aren鈥檛 we out West? Why aren鈥檛 we up North?鈥欌�� Gessner says. 鈥淏ut we have two really good jobs in the same program. This is where our daughter grew up. And my writing has grown being here鈥攖he fact that I鈥檓 not writing book after book on 鈥業 love this place鈥�; I鈥檓 not trying to write 鈥榃alden鈥� three times in a row about Boulder and Cape Cod.鈥澨�

De Gramont recently submitted a new novel to her agent, and Gessner is working on a book entwining the stories of Theodore Roosevelt and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. In 1906, Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the authority to create national monuments on federal lands to protect significant natural, cultural or scientific features. Bears Ears has become a political battleground between factions that want to either preserve or exploit natural landscapes

鈥淚 spent basically two months out there in Bears Ears this summer to experience it,鈥� says Gessner, who also blogs at听Bill and Dave鈥檚 Cocktail Hour. 鈥淭he book will be a history of the Antiquities Act woven together with the biography of a very charismatic鈥攁nd potentially racist toward Native Americans鈥攑resident. 鈥� I want to bring readers to the subjects through the prism of my own, more limited self, getting to the bigger issues through a human conduit.鈥�

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