Ron Hansen

Ron Hansen (born December 8, 1947) is an American novelist, essayist, and professor. He is known for writing literary westerns exploring the people and history of the American heartland, notably The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (1983), which was adapted into an acclaimed film. Ron Hansen was born in Omaha, Nebraska and reared as Catholic. He attended a Jesuit high school, Creighton Preparatory School, and earned a Bachelor's degree in English from Creighton University in Omaha in 1970.Following military service, he earned an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974 and held a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship at Stanford University. He later earned an M.A. in Spirituality from Santa Clara University.

Hansen is the Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University, where he teaches courses in writing and literature. He is married to the writer Bo Caldwell.

In January 2007, Hansen was ordained as a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church.In May 2009, Hansen was inducted to the college of fellows at Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.