His essays, short fiction, criticism, and journalism have appeared in Details, Playboy, Willow Springs, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. His nonfiction book, Every Knee Shall Bow, was a finalist for the pen Center West literary nonfiction award in 1996. His novel Citizen Vince won a 2006 Edgar Allan Poe award, and his following novel, The Zero, was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award.
Walter started his career writing for his hometown newspaper, the Spokesman-Review, where he helped cover the standoff between Randy Weaver and federal agents at Ruby Ridge, in North Idaho—work that eventually led to the publication of Every Knee Shall Bow in 1996. His first novel, Over Tumbled Graves, came out in 2001, followed by The Land of the Blind, Citizen Vince, The Zero, The Financial Lives of the Poets, and most recently Beautiful Ruins, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of 2012 as well as Esquire‘s Book of the Year. His first short story collection, 2013’s We Live in Water, was described by The Seattle Times as “So freakishly, fiendishly good it isn’t fair.”
Willow Springs editor Samuel Ligon and contributing interviewers Gabe Ehrnwald, Brendan Lynaugh, and Shawn Vestal spoke with Walter over two meetings at Spokane’s Davenport Hotel, which features prominently in The Land of the Blind. “It’s taken me a long time,” Walter said, “to arrive at a place where I feel like I’m doing the work I set out to do.”
