Education
She is a graduate of the University of Washington, and holds both an Master of Arts in English and an Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Cornell University.
She is a graduate of the University of Washington, and holds both an Master of Arts in English and an Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Cornell University.
She is the author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, which was on display at the Missoula Museum of Art in late 2011. Her work has also appeared in Ploughshares and the Northeast Indian Quarterly. She is of the Bitterroot Salish (tribe).
Earling is currently a faculty member in the English Department at the University of Montana at Missoula.
Debra Magpie Earling"s debut novel Perma Red is something of a miracle. The University of Montana creative writing professor began writing it in 1984 and, over the years, it has been through at least nine different rewrites, trimmed from an epic-length 800 pages to a compact 288, burned to a crisp in a house fire, and rejected by publishers who loved the writing but thought the original ending too dark and brutal.
Through it all, Earling persevered and the novel stands as a testament to her faith and patience.