Overview
I love sentences. I love the music of words; John Updike was said to admire the phrase "four-door Ford," and--really--who could not? I love words' endless combinations and recombinations, the process of subordination, through which we instantly recognize what is at the heart of a particular sentence and what is ancillary to it. I love the way that sentences can be rewritten or restructured to change the emphasis. Word order is everything, though not everything is word order.
Annie Dillard writes, in the opening of The Writing Life, "When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow." She is right in this--though wrong about other things--and I like the precision of the tools she mentions. They are physical tools to deal with the physical world, and I love the physicality of words and the physical world they create. I love to help other writers say as clearly and cleanly and directly as possible what it is they want to say. Or, alternately, I love to help writers discover and celebrate their own particular vision of the language, their own way of writing sentences, their style.
I'm an expert developmental, line and copy editor.
I'm also the author of SATYRDAY (Putnam's), THE RIVER (Ace), AMAZING STORIES 1 & 2 (Ace), DAYLIGHT SAVINGS (Gibbs Smith), THE STRANGE AND WONDERFUL STORY OF ROBERT MCDOODLE (THE BOY WHO WANTED TO BE A DOG) (Simon &Schuster), and A CAT OF A DIFFERENT COLOR (Random House/Delacorte).
Annie Dillard writes, in the opening of The Writing Life, "When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow." She is right in this--though wrong about other things--and I like the precision of the tools she mentions. They are physical tools to deal with the physical world, and I love the physicality of words and the physical world they create. I love to help other writers say as clearly and cleanly and directly as possible what it is they want to say. Or, alternately, I love to help writers discover and celebrate their own particular vision of the language, their own way of writing sentences, their style.
I'm an expert developmental, line and copy editor.
I'm also the author of SATYRDAY (Putnam's), THE RIVER (Ace), AMAZING STORIES 1 & 2 (Ace), DAYLIGHT SAVINGS (Gibbs Smith), THE STRANGE AND WONDERFUL STORY OF ROBERT MCDOODLE (THE BOY WHO WANTED TO BE A DOG) (Simon &Schuster), and A CAT OF A DIFFERENT COLOR (Random House/Delacorte).
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Fiction
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Literary Fiction
Middle Grade
Short Story
Young Adult
Languages
English (US)
Awards
- Effective Educator Award, Miami University Alumni Association, Miami University, 2003. • Outstanding Professor Award, Associated Student Government, Miami University, 2001. • Parents’ Choice Foundation, “A 2000 Fiction Recommended Winner” for A Cat of a Different Color. • E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award, for excellence and innovation in undergraduate teaching, Miami University, Oxford, OH 1997. • Distinguished Educator Award, College of Arts and Science, Miami University, 1995. • Outstanding Teacher Award, Associated Student Government, Miami University, 1991. • Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize for Daylight Savings, Gibbs Smith, Inc. 1989. • Master Artist Fellowship Award, Indiana Arts Council, Indianapolis, IN., 1988. • Strousse Award for Poetry, Prairie Schooner, University of Nebraska, 1982. • ALA Best Book Award for Satyrday, 1981. • Allan Collins Fellowship in Prose, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT., 1981. • Writing Fellowship, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA., 1978-79. • Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, 1975.
Certifications
- M.F.A. in English, 1975. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Thesis: Plugging in the Flowers, poems. Director: James Tate B.A. with Honors in English, 1970. Trinity College, Hartford, CT.
- Books: A Cat of a Different Color, a novel. New York: Delacorte, 2000. New York: Dell Yearling, 2001. The Strange and Wonderful Tale of Robert McDoodle (The Boy Who Wanted to be a Dog), a children’s book in verse. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999. Daylight Savings, poems. Layton UT: Gibbs Smith,1989. Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. Volumes 1 and 2. New York: Charter Books, 1986. London: Futura, 1986. Paris: Presses de la Cite, 1986. Munich: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, 1986. Tel Aviv: Or’Am Schatz, 1986. Tokyo: Shinchosa, 1986. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1986. Hoganas, Sweden: Bokforlaget Bra Bocker, 1986. The River, a novel based on a screenplay by Robert Dillon and Julian Barry. New York: Berkley Books, 1985. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1985. London and Sydney: Sphere Books Ltd., 1985. Paris: Presses de la Cite, 1985. Munich: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1985. Amsterdam: ECI, 1985. Satyrday, a novel. New York: A Berkley/Putnam Book, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1980. London: Souvenir Press, 1981. New York: Berkley Trade Edition, 1982. Antwerp: Het Spectrum Utrecht, 1984. New York: Berkley Books, 1985. Munich: Fischer Taschenbuch, 1986. Stories and essays: “Take That, Will Rogers,” an essay. Dog People, ed. Michael Rosen. New York: Artisan/Workman, 1995. “Fixing the Furnace,” an essay, Hopewell Review, Vol. 7, Sept. 1995. “A Man Who Cooks,” an essay, Glamour, June 1995. “The Price of Resurrection,” an essay, Harrowsmith/Country Life, May/June 1994. “Fired,” a short story. The Dickinson Review, Vol. IX, 1994. “Becoming a Gardener,” an essay. My Poor Elephant: Twenty-Seven Male Writers at Work, ed. Eve Shelnutt. Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1992. “Wild at Heart,” an essay. Harrowsmith/Country Life, May/June 1992. “Teaching Creative Writing,” an essay. Mississippi Review, Vol. 19, nos. 1-2, 1990. “Farmhouse Blues,” an essay, Home, Vol. 23, No. 10, Oct. 1986.
Work experience
Self-employed
Jul, 2009 —
Present
Miami University, Oxford, OH
Aug, 1982 —
Jul, 2009
(almost 27 years)
Taught creative writing, fiction writing, contemporary literature, and courses on the publishing industry
Colby College, Waterville,ME
Aug, 1979 —
Jun, 1982
(almost 3 years)
Taught poetry writing, fiction writing, and American literature
Portfolio
Art, demons, and death. Seattle is On the Verge.2016 BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist"The sinewy plot...provides a solid matrix for imaginative insights into the relationship between art, creativity, and myth that hold the tale together." - Critic's Report, 2016... read more
On Bittersweet Place is the powerful coming-of-age story of Lena Czernitski, a young Russian Jew whose family flees their homeland in the Ukraine after the October Revolution. The story unfolds in Chicago during the Jazz Age of the 1920's, where Lena's impover... read more
In 1989 Dave Bricker set off across the Gulf Stream in a small sailboat with $30 in his pocket. His voyages aboard The Blue Monk through the Bahamas and across the Atlantic to Gibraltar are recounted in vivid prose. The Blue Monk is a journey of self-discovery... read more
Shortlisted for the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize for WritingIt is 1554 in the desert of Rajasthan, and a new Mughal emperor is expanding his territory. On a rare night of rain, a daughter, Adhira, is born to a family of Hindu temple dancers. Fearin... read more
In this masterful novel of inheritance and loss, Sonya Chung (Long for This World) proves herself a worthy heir to Marguerite Duras, Hwang Sun-won, and James Salter. Spanning generations and divergent cultures, The Loved Ones maps the intimate politics of unli... read more
A riveting love story that plays out against the background of one of the most intriguing chapters in aviation history. David Dennington weaves a fascinating web of romance, courage, tragedy and shattered dreams and gives the reader a front row seat to eye-ope... read more
Breaking Bread in Galilee - A Culinary Journey into the Promised Land, by Abbie Rosner, takes the reader along a journey the author has made, exploring local foods and age-old culinary traditions that are described in the Hebrew Bible, and still being practice... read more
In this stirring new collection, Ronna Wineberg explores our essential bonds to partners, children, parents, and friends. Intimacy, marriage, parenthood, adultery, divorce, and the legacies left by the past unfold in these beautifully written stories. Men and ... read more
When Curva Peligrosa arrives in Weed, Alberta, after a twenty-year trek on the Old North Trail from southern Mexico, she stops its residents in their tracks. With a parrot on each shoulder, a glittering gold tooth, and a wicked trigger finger, she is unlike an... read more
Letters from Germany keep the Reinhart family connected to a son serving as a soldier in 1945. An empty mailbox is a worry. Though they are a tight-knit clan and look out for one another, there are subterranean angers and resentments, missed opportunities and ... read more
Set against Arizona’s political and cultural vortex at the start of 2010, "The Intersect" explores the issues of the day by weaving together the lives of disparate characters striving to survive in a world where the strongest link, and most lasting connection,... read more
AFTER A DISASTROUS SIXTH GRADE, Jake Herndon is anxiously awaiting his Big Do-Over, starting with his new school's notorious seventh grade sleepover. Awkward team-building games and forced fun quickly become the least of his problems, however, when a dangerous... read more
In these collected stories of deeply human, flawed men and women in search of connection, consolation and better odds, Dallas Hudgens once again taps into the powerful and resonant view of ordinary lives made less so that has earned him national praise for his... read more
Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King’s seminal debut features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction.On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth yea... read more
After a back-to-school night that became a frenzied fight for survival, seventh grade has finally settled down for Jake, Lucy, and TJ. Of course, there are still your basic Level Three humiliations: awkward hygiene challenges, toxic nicknames, and science fair... read more
The ambitious and damned whites and blacks on Westfall plantation take us down the perilous path to an end of plantation life in the south as well as its customs and beliefs that involved the buying, selling, and exploitation of an entire class and race of peo... read more
It is 1944, and on Grandpa's farm lives an extended family including twelve year-old Lily whose child-like understanding of her mother and family becomes more confusing as her sensibilities mature. When her uncle is drafted and sent to Germany, the family's wo... read more
Uttering the name Mr. Memory evokes the live performances and talk show appearances when he would impress the world with his abilities of recollection. His clarity of remembrance has kept listeners captivated for days while sharing the adventures of his life. ... read more
John Fleming grew up in the 1940’s and ‘50’s in Hell’s Kitchen, a New York City slum, now gentrified. He wanted to show how it was at that time, since no writer he was aware of had told this story with the voice of one who had lived the experience. In this can... read more
Stories of men and women confronted by the Vietnam War. Contains personal stories of Vietnam War Veterans, people who fled the country, people who refused to go to war, people who beat the draft, people who obtained Conscientious Objector status, and people wh... read more
Praise for Dream Cat: "A smart, sassy tale, skillfully told, that will make kids excited about history. It's a book that cries out for a porch, a swing, and some lemonade on a quiet afternoon. Enjoy." STEVE BERRY, bestselling author of historical thrillers, in... read more
Imagine what would happen if you made different choices..."This sci-fi historical novel... is great fun and an awesome read." (James A. Anderson, Amazon reviewer)"...combination of styles such as HG Wells and George Lucas." (Tesla, Amazon reviewer)"An absolute... read more
Thomas lands bewildered in Kathmandu, to find a place to scatter the ashes of his older brother Paul, who was a Peace Corps volunteer decades before in Nepal. He meets an American cohort of Paul’s and her parents who work with Tibetan refugees. Things happened... read more
Jay Hall needs more than her pepper spray and cue ball on a chain. Sergei Shannin is watching when she puts moves on a Silicon Valley CEO. Sergei promised to deliver the CEO's trade secrets to an offshore client, but can't get inside the company. He makes Jay ... read more
With Malice Toward None is the self-portrait of a young medical student grappling with the turmoil of the American South during the late 1960s. Peter Rogers leaves Ohio to study in Memphis at a time when civil rights marches, workers' strikes, and institutiona... read more
LUBA’S TRAVELS is the first-person account of Luba Ruzicka. The daughter of an eminent Slovakian cardiologist, she is born on Christmas Eve 1940 in Bratislava and spends her earliest years in the shadow of World War II. LUBA’S TRAVELS is much more than the cla... read more
A bold, mesmerizing novel that interweaves the story of two slaves with the characters in Bonnie Stanard’s previous novels, Master of Westfall Plantation and Kedzie, Saint Helena Island Slave. Slavery was a system that separated black families. Even benevolent... read more
It is 1857 and Tilmon Goodwyn wields absolute power over his plantation on St. Helena Island, South Carolina which hardly makes a profit because of his profligate spending and gambling. He has maneuvered to secure financial benefits from his wealthy widowed mo... read more
St. Helena Island slaves speak English, but African drums still throb in their veins; they hear the whispers of their ancestors. From this arises a girl of unusual strength, whose pampered life ends when her kindly mistress dies, and she moves to a shanty in t... read more
Steven has 6 reviews
Professionalism
Quality
Value
Responsiveness
Shane V.
Jun, 2018
Megan G.
May, 2018
Morgan B.
Apr, 2018
Susan S.
Mar, 2018
Garen G.
Mar, 2018
Sign up to read more reviews
Create a free Reedsy account to connect with Steven and thousands of other publishing professionals on Reedsy.
