Kent Haruf

Kent Haruf is an award-winning literary fiction novelist from Pueblo, Colorado. He was born in 1943 to Louis Hoerauf, a Methodist preacher who changed the family name to Haruf since he was frustrated that nobody seemed to get it right. The name rhymes with sheriff though the change did not seem to work as nobody says it right to this day. The Harufs had a rootless life as Louis moved all over Colorado preaching during which time his children were encouraged to find whatever jobs they could find in the community they found themselves in. As such, Kent remembers living in more than three small towns in Colorado which colored his view of the rural setting that he writes about in Holt, the setting for all his six novels. After graduating from high school, he went to Nebraska Wesleyan University from where he graduated with a BA in literature. He then spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey, which is where he started writing fiction. Aspiring to become a professional author, Haruf moved with his family to Iowa City where he got his masters in Creative Fiction from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. He became an English professor in Wisconsin and Colorado and got his first break when his short story was published in “Puerto del Sol” a literary magazine. Motivated by the success, he published the Whittington Foundation Award-Winning novel Ties That Bind in 1984.