BIO

Kase Johnstun lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. He is the author of the novel CAST AWAY, forthcoming in 2024 from Torrey House Press, and the author of Let the Wild Grasses Grow which has been named a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Read 2022, a High Plains Book Award Fiction Finalist 2022, a Recommended Read in Fiction for The League of Utah Writers 2022, and a Reading the West Longlist nominee.

He is the author of Beyond the Grip Craniosynostosis (McFarland & Co), which has been featured in Pennsylvania Parenting Magazine, Portland Family Magazine, The Ogden Standard Examiner, and many other places, 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 and Poker Tables, Coors, and Bunuelos were named a finalist for the 2013 and 2020 Autumn House Press Nonfiction Awards, respectively, (most of the essays in the collection have found homes in places like The Real Story, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, The Good Men Project, Under the Gum Tree, 34th, Parallel, The Watershed Review, Label Me Latino/a, Prime Number Literary Magazine, Animal Literary Magazine, and Rougaroo Literary Magazine).

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. 

He is the co-editor/author of Utah Reflections: Stories from the Wasatch Front (The History Press), 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).