Gina Ochsner

Gina Ochsner graduated from George Fox in 1992 and quickly became one of the school’s most critically acclaimed fiction writers. Her 2002 book of short stories, The Necessary Grace to Fall, won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and her 2005 follow-up, People I Wanted to Be, was recipient of the Oregon Book Award. A novel, The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight, received the Grub Street Book Prize in 2011 and was long listed for the Orange Prize in 2010. In all, she has won more than 20 awards for her writing, including the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award. Her short stories have been featured in The New Yorker magazine and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Gina Ochsner is an educator and prolific writer who has received widespread praise for her work. She is the author of the short story collection The Necessary Grace to Fall, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the story collection People I Wanted to Be. Both books received the Oregon Book Award. In addition, her novel The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight was longlisted for the Orange Award (UK). Ochsner lives in Keizer, Ore., and divides her time between teaching at Corban University and writing. She is the recipient of grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Howard Foundation.Since her graduation in 1992, Gina has been a part of numerous volunteer and ministry outreaches. She has worked with the Roma Outreach Ministries (BBI, YWAN Slavic Ministries, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship); the Romainian/Moldovan Outreach (Bridge Builders, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship); and the Latvian Missions (Bridge Builders International, YWAN, and the Lavitican Public School Cooperation). Her volunteer experience includes work in Roma through Global Missions and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (short term teams), Youth with a Mission (Slavic short term teams), as a writer/intern for, For God’s Children International with ministries at Bucharest’s Children’s Hospital and Zabil home for the disabled and the Children’s Home in Moldova, a speaker/ workshop leader at the Slavic school in Salem, a speaker/workshop leader for the Public School Conference’s “Integrating Biblical Principles in Education,” in Riga, Latvia. She has also volunteered with the Oregon Writers Colony, Simonka House for Women, as an English Language tutor, for the Northwest Review staff reader, and as a mentor/ workshop leader facilitating with middle and high school grades with an emphasis on creative writing with Title 1 and rural schools.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/noteable_individuals/1088/thumbnail.jp