Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Congratulations are in order!  One of my dearest undergraduate creative writing professors (whose wife is an even dearer former creative writing professor and current mentor, friend, and faithful reader of mine) has just published his first novel and received tenure in the Writing Department at the University of Central Arkansas.  Congratulations, Dr. V!

Below is the press release:

Fiction writer John Vanderslice (not to be confused with the Indie songster of the same name)  announces the publication of his first novel, Burnt Norway, with Florida Academic Press. Vanderslice has published numerous short stories in journals such as Crazyhorse and the South Carolina Review and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, but this is his first published book.  A comic, metafictional romance (or, novel within a novel), Burnt Norway will be published sometime in the fall as an inaugural book in their New Voices series and will be available online and through various other sources.  Look for more updates soon.

In a fiction workshop I took with Dr. Vanderslice my final undergraduate semester, he encouraged me to keep up the "white trash" aesthetic I was working up (or, as he called it, "Kmart Fiction").  Because of his encouragement, I came to graduate school unafraid to share my own less-than-ideal perspective in my creative work, unafraid of the honesty present in my own voice.  So, thanks Dr. V, and congratulations.