Colorado Art RanchPhoto: David Peterson
 

 

benjaminKristen Iversen

Writer
Memphis, TN

www.kristeniversen.com
www.MFAinMemphis.com

Editor-in-Chief, The Pinch: www.thepinchjournal.com

 

Kristen Iversen is the author of Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction; Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction; and the forthcoming memoir Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Shadow of Rocky Flats.  Her work engages issues of landscape and identity; i.e., narratives that explore the personal and the political, the landscape and the landscape within.  Iversen holds a Ph.D. from The University of Denver and her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals.  Her fellowship awards include the San Jose Arts Council, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute, and the Colorado Art Ranch, and she has worked extensively with A & E Biography and The History Channel.  Kristen Iversen has taught at universities around the country and is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Memphis, where she teaches nonfiction and fiction and is editor-in-chief of the award-winning, internationally distributed literary journal The Pinch.

About the DIA Project
Rocky Flats was a top-secret nuclear weapons facility located just beyond my childhood backyard.  Owned by the Department of Energy, for nearly fifty years it covertly produced the plutonium heart of every nuclear bomb in the United States.  No one, not even the governor, knew what the bomb factory produced, or that the air, water, and soil of local communities were being contaminated with plutonium and other highly hazardous materials.  Deadly waste management practices and several catastrophic fires were hidden from the public.  A dramatic FBI/EPA raid in 1989 led to an extensive grand jury investigation.  But the grand jury report was sealed, the jurors sworn to silence, and the ongoing environmental atrocities at Rocky Flats continued.  Secrecy reigned—but the veil of deception did not end with the Cold War.  Today, following a contentious “cleanup” and amidst much public protest, a large part of Rocky Flats is preparing to open to the public as a wildlife refuge and public recreation area with controversial levels of contamination.  

Full Body Burden is my story as a young girl who, like my siblings and friends, grew up riding horses in the fields around Rocky Flats, swimming in the lake and streams, playing in the soil, and breathing the air, unaware of any radioactive contamination.  Later, when some facts about the plant were leaked to the public, I participated in protests at Rocky Flats, and eventually I worked at the plant myself.  Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Shadow of Rocky Flats is a memoir about secrets and betrayal, a family story interwoven with the dramatic events of the United States’ most controversial nuclear weapons facility and how it impacted the lives of families, workers, and local communities as well as its broader political and environmental implications.  

 


 

  

33 IDEAS!, an exhibit of art, writing and ideas
March 15-June 15, 2010

Denver International Airport

DIA PostcardThis exhibit showcases visual and literary artists associated with Colorado Art Ranch as presenters, artists in residence, or Nomads at one or more Artposia. The artists were selected because they use their passion, skills, knowledge, and talent to ask questions and react to the world around them. The work, in turn, inspires us to ask questions and view the world from different perspectives.

33 IDEAS! is on display at the Ansbacher Hall: The Art of Colorado, on the walkway between the terminal and A Gates before the security screening. The hall is accessible for everyone’s enjoyment.

For more information contact DIA Art Program at
(303) 342-2521 or visit www.flydenver.com/art

 

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