Biography
Kase Johnstun lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. Johnstun is the Manager for the Utah Center for the Book and Utah’s Representative to the Library of Congress.
He is the author of the acclaimed novel, LET THE WILD GRASSES GROW (Torrey House Press, 2021), a reimaging of his Mexican American grandparents’ lives during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and WWII. The novel was recently named a finalist for the High Plains Book Awards, longlisted for Reading the West, and named a coveted Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads for 2022.
His novel (May 2024), CAST AWAY, about a young boy who, along with his formidable great-aunt (an immigrant who settled on the Utah salt flats in 1923), devises a plan to join the cast of a reality show, win the prize money, and bring back their undocumented family safely to America, will publish with Torrey House Press in 2024.
Additionally, Johnstun is the author of BEYOND THE GRIP CRANIOSYNOSTOSIS (McFarland & Co., 2015), which has been featured in Pennsylvania Parenting Magazine, Portland Family Magazine, The Ogden Standard Examiner, as well as having mentions in the Chicago Tribune and the Seattle Times. It was awarded the Gold Quill (First Place) in Creative Nonfiction by the League of Utah Writers for 2015.
His essay collection, TORTILLAS FOR HONKIES, was named a finalist for the 2013 Autumn House Press Nonfiction Awards, and his collection POKER TABLES, COORS, AND BUÑUELOS was named a finalist for the 2020 Autumn House Press Nonfiction awards and the C&R Press Awards. Most of the essays in the collection have found homes in places like The Watershed Review, Label Me Latino/a, Prime Number Literary Magazine, Animal Literary Magazine, and Rougarou Literary Magazine. He is the co-editor/author of UTAH REFLECTIONS: STORIES FROM THE WASATCH FRONT (The History Press, 2014), which was named the Salt Lake Tribune’s book of the month for August 2014 and the League of Utah Writers Recommended Read in Nonfiction 2015 (Third Place).
His work has been published widely by literary journals and trade magazines, including, but not limited to, Southwest the Magazine, Yahoo Parenting, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, Coldnoon: Travel Writing and Traveling Poetics, Like The Wind Magazine, and The Chronicle Review.
Johnstun was literary chair for the Ogden City Arts Advisory Committee (2014-2018), was named to Ogden’s 40 under 40 three weeks before his fortieth birthday in 2015, and hosts a literary podcast called LITerally where he interviews authors about all things publishing and writing. He is a board member of the Label Me Latina/o Literary Magazine (Queens University of Charlotte).
In January 2016, he was the artist in residence at JIWAR International Artist Residency in Barcelona, Spain. He was the 2020/2021 Literary Curator for the literary stage of the Utah Arts Festival and has supported and created literary events in Ogden since moving back to his hometown in 2013. And, he was most recently named the 2021 Ogden Mayor’s Award Recipient for the Literary Arts.
He has a BA in English Literature and Technical and Professional Writing from Weber State University, an MA in Creative Writing and Literature from Kansas State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University.
