Creative Writing

Education

• MFA, Fiction Writing, Indiana University
• MA, English Literature, Wake Forest University
• BA, English Literature, Speech Communication & Theatre Arts
• Additional training, Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School, New York

Research Interests

• Novel Writing
• Short Story Writing
• Screenwriting
• Verse Writing
• Creative Nonfiction Writing

Select Publications

• Mr. Potato Head vs. Freud:  Lessons on the Craft of Writing Fiction (Press 53, 2021)
• Music for Hard Times:  New & Selected Stories (Press 53, 2021)
• Haints (New Rivers Press, 2012)
• War Memorials (Houghton Mifflin, 2001; Graywolf, 2000)
• The Member-Guest (Doubleday, 1995)

Courses

• Novel Writing
• Screenwriting
• Short Fiction Writing

Awards

• Inducted into Writers Hall of Fame, 2021 Wake Forest University
• Midwest Book Award, 2013, Midwest Independent Publishers Association
• S. Mariella Gable Prize, 2004, Graywolf Press 
• American Fiction Prize, 1991, 1993
• Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Literary Fiction, 1995