Alan Davis
Senior Editor, New Rivers Press / Faculty, MSUM M.F.A. Program/ Faculty, Fairfield MFA Program/
So Bravely Vegetative /American Fiction / Rumors from the Lost World / Alone with the Owl
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Alan Davis
Alan Davis received a doctorate from the University of Denver and a master's degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, His third collection of stories, So Bravely Vegetative, won the Prize Americana for Fiction 2010. His other two prize-winning collections are Rumors from the Lost World and Alone with the Owl. He was born in New Orleans, the fabled Crescent City near the mouth of the Mississippi, into a large Catholic family of Italian, French, and Irish ancestry. Davis has received, among other honors, two Fulbright awards (to Indonesia and Slovenia), a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in Creative Prose. His work appears in The New York Times Book Review, The Hudson Review, The Sun magazine, and many other print and online journals. He now lives in Minnesota, near the Mississippi's headwaters among Garrison Keillor's Lutherans and Louise Erdrich's full and mixed-blood Native Americans. Davis is a Professor in the English Department and M.F.A. program at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). He is also on the faculty of the low-residency M.F.A. program at Fairfield University in CT. He is currently at work on a fourth collection of stories, three novels, and a collection of poems. He can be found on Facebook, Twitter (@Big_Al_Himself), and Linked in.
He also serves as Senior Editor at New Rivers Press. The press was founded in 1968 by C. W. "Bill" Truesdale and has published more than 340 titles. In 2001, after Truesdale's death, it was revived and relocated to MSUM, where its dual mission is to publish new and emerging writers and provide learning opportunities for students in partnership with MSUM. The press honors Truesdale's progressive spirit by publishing work with a strong sense of place that speaks to our troubled times with satyagraha (the truthforce), empathy, and aesthetic courage.
Alan Davis received a doctorate from the University of Denver and a master's degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, His third collection of stories, So Bravely Vegetative, won the Prize Americana for Fiction 2010. His other two prize-winning collections are Rumors from the Lost World and Alone with the Owl. He was born in New Orleans, the fabled Crescent City near the mouth of the Mississippi, into a large Catholic family of Italian, French, and Irish ancestry. Davis has received, among other honors, two Fulbright awards (to Indonesia and Slovenia), a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in Creative Prose. His work appears in The New York Times Book Review, The Hudson Review, The Sun magazine, and many other print and online journals. He now lives in Minnesota, near the Mississippi's headwaters among Garrison Keillor's Lutherans and Louise Erdrich's full and mixed-blood Native Americans. Davis is a Professor in the English Department and M.F.A. program at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). He is also on the faculty of the low-residency M.F.A. program at Fairfield University in CT. He is currently at work on a fourth collection of stories, three novels, and a collection of poems. He can be found on Facebook, Twitter (@Big_Al_Himself), and Linked in.
He also serves as Senior Editor at New Rivers Press. The press was founded in 1968 by C. W. "Bill" Truesdale and has published more than 340 titles. In 2001, after Truesdale's death, it was revived and relocated to MSUM, where its dual mission is to publish new and emerging writers and provide learning opportunities for students in partnership with MSUM. The press honors Truesdale's progressive spirit by publishing work with a strong sense of place that speaks to our troubled times with satyagraha (the truthforce), empathy, and aesthetic courage.
Minnesota State University Moorhead
POB 38, Weld Hall 202 (English), Weld 108 (New Rivers Press), Moorhead, MN 56563
Phone: 218-477-4681 • Email • Spring Office Hours: MW 10-11:00, 1:00-3:00; T 10-1, 3:30-4:30; H & F by Appt.
Spring 2013: MFA Nonfiction Writing (MFA 688): T 4:30-7:00; American Literature Survey (Engl 372): MW 11:00-12:40.
Other Duties: Senior Editor, New Rivers Press
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Praise for Alan Davis:
A magical collection of stories, one of the best I've encountered in years.Tim O'Brien
He has an original talent, a feel for action, a sparse yet vivid style, a sharp satirical sense, a keen eye and ear for the follies of the age.Walker Percy
Alan Davis's voice transports and sings. I wouldn't mind winding up as a character in one of his stories. Odds are, he'd do me justice. Dorothy Allison, New York Times Book Review
Praise for So Bravely Vegetative:
So Bravely Vegetative is a marvelous collection of stories—beautifully written, daringly inventive, frequently disturbing. Each story draws us into a fresh and startling world, one chock full of unique characters and vividly imagined scenes. But what makes Davis’ stories so riveting are the kaleidoscope of inimitable voices. The stories here run a rich gamut: a son trying to understand a violent father, an imprisoned Afro-American convict struggling to survive his captivity, a British hobo making his way by freight train across a surreal American landscape, a man and woman being interrogated in a dark Huxleyian world, a father trying to save his cancer-stricken daughter. These stories will haunt you.
Michael White, author of Beautiful Assassin
Alan Davis writes with a poet's sense of language,
lyricism, and imagination. His prose is exquisitely crafted, and always
fresh. The world he brings to life is as varied and unpredictable as
life itself -- sometimes magical, sometimes mysterious, sometimes
chilling, sometimes heartbreakingly innocent. The range in these stories
is nothing short of amazing.
Clint McCown, author of The Weatherman
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