John Purdy
He/him/his, Professor Emeritus
About
Dr. John L. Purdy taught for WWU's English Department from 1991-2014.
John L. Purdy (www.johnlpurdy.com) is a poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker whose works explore the mythos of current times, and the history of cultural exchanges over deep time that created it. Much of his work derives from his thirty-five plus years teaching university literature and writing courses, on three continents, and his longstanding interactions with Native writers and communities. When he retired from Western, he founded the nonprofit Write Place to celebrate writing and writers who take readers into an intimate understanding of the world around them. In this capacity, he produced two documentaries, Writing Oregon and Bearheart: The Gerald Vizenor Chronicles, which explores the environmental subtexts of the popular Anishinaabe author’s novels. Both can be viewed at Write Place’s website: https://writeplace.org/