Ellen Waterston has published four poetry and three literary nonfiction titles, including, most recently, "Walking the High Desert: Encounters with Rural America Along the Oregon Desert Trail."

"Hotel Domilocos" is her most recent collection of poetry. She serves on the faculty of OSU-Cascades Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing, and is founder of the Writing Ranch, which conducts writing workshops and retreats, and of the annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize, recently adopted as a program of the High Desert Museum. She lives in central Oregon.

In this edition of Bend Don't Break, we chat with Waterston about the writer's life, her column, The Third Act, on ageism and aging (that appears in the Source Weekly), the Waterston Desert Writing prize and more.