STEVEN SHERRILL has been making trouble with words since 8th grade, when he was suspended from school for two weeks for a story he wrote. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade, eventually earned a Welding Diploma from Mitchell Community College, and then an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Now, he is an associate professor of English and Integrative Arts at Penn State University, Altoona, where he teaches, paints, and captains the Allegheny Bilge Rats Shanty Choir. He has published five novels and a book of poems. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction in 2002. His first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break (2000), is translated into 8 languages and was recently released as an audio book by Neil Gaiman Productions. His other works include Visits from the Drowned Girl (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) (2004), The Locktender’s House (2007), Ersatz Anatomy (2010), JOY, PA (2015), and most recently, The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time (2016). Taken from stevensherrill.com.