Books & Writings

Virginia is a successful,  award-winning freelance writer.  Her work has been featured in a variety of magazines, newsletters, and newspapers across the country.  She is a regular contributor to Rocky Mountain Outdoors (RMOWP Writer’s Corner), with articles focusing on the craft of writing.  She has also published several books, including the following:

  • Her most recently published book The Legend of El Patron:  A True Story (Booklocker, 2019), was written for children age eight through fourteen. To view the book’s trailer, visit El Patron book trailer.   The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, and other fine bookstores.  For quantity purchases, please visit Booklocker.com.
  • Virginia has also created Tasunka, a limited-edition artist’s book featuring portraits of wild horses at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  For more information about the book, please visit her photography website at Tasunka.
  • Her essay Winter Texans in Aransas was featured in Milkweed Editions anthology, Stories from Where We Live:  The Gulf Coast, (2002).  The book is still available on Amazon, just click here:  Stories from Where We Live: The Gulf Coast
  • In 1994, Virginia wrote Factors of Success, a contract book for the DuPont Company.
book trio covers
Stories from Where We Live, The Legend of El Patron, and Tasunka by Virginia Parker Staat

Virginia graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional and Technical Writing with a Creative Writing Emphasis from the University of Houston.  She has won a variety of awards for her essays, short stories, and books.  To mention a few, she won the Alexander F. Schilt Award for her essay writing, she won first place twice for her short stories in the literary magazine Bayou Review, she has twice won the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers (RMOWP) Best of Show in Writing, and won first place in RMOWP’s unpublished category for The Legend of El Patron:  A True Story.

Additionally, Virginia writes a popular overland camping travel blog about her adventures with husband David and Golden Retriever Roxanne.  Please click here to visit:  Ruffing It Travel Blog