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Clint McCown (born 1952, Fayetteville, Tennessee) is an American author, poet, essayist, journalist, editor, actor, and university professor. He currently teaches fiction writing and screenwriting at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also teaches in the low-residency MFA program for the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Early life

A native of Tennessee, McCown spent his youth in Birmingham, Alabama and in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His father was a command-level Special Agent for the U.S. Secret Service assigned to the protective detail of former-President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and in his teens McCown worked as the yard boy on the Eisenhower farm.

Education & Career

He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Wake Forest University and an M.F.A. from Indiana University, with additional study at the University of Alabama.

He received professional theatre training at the Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School on Broadway in 1973-74, and subsequently toured as a principal actor with the National Shakespeare Company and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Several of his plays have been produced. From 1976-78 he worked as Poet/Dramatist-in-Residence for the North Carolina Visiting Artist program.

In 1978-79 he worked as Capitol Reporter for the Alabama Information Network, a chain of sixty-seven affiliated radio stations in Alabama. For his investigations of organized crime and political corruption, he received an Associated Press Award for Documentary Excellence in 1978.

After a stint as editor of Indiana Review, he taught at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he founded the Beloit Fiction Journal, which he edited for twenty years. He served four years as General Editor of the Intro Journals Project for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

In a 2013 interview, when asked about thematic consistency among his novels, McCown said, “If there’s a common thread among them, it may be, to some extent, they are all books about forgiveness.”  In 2020, in an interview for his upcoming induction to the Writers Hall of Fame at Wake Forest University, he spoke about early experiences that impacted his work:  “Perhaps the greatest shaping force was the fact that my family had moved seven times by the time I entered eighth grade. Throughout my formative years I was continually cast in the role of outsider. As a consequence, a major theme in my work seems to be the examining of artificial cultural barriers that dictate behavior. I like exploring the ways in which people do— or don’t— struggle to fit into society.”

He currently teaches in the MFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he has served as Program Director; and in the the low-residency MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Awards and Honors

Writers Hall of Fame induction, Wake Forest University, 2021 Notable Essay Citations, Best American Essays, 2016, 2018, 2021 Midwest Book Award, Midwest Independent Publishers Association, 2013 Sister Mariella Gable Prize, Graywolf Press, 2004 Outstanding Achievement in Literature citation, Wisconsin Library Association, 2001 Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Fiction, 1995 Friends of Literature Award for Best Fiction, 1995 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers designation, 1995 American Fiction Prize, 1993 American Fiction Prize, 1991 Wisconsin Artist grant, 1989 National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1989 Academy of American Poets Prize, 1982 Associated Press Award for Documentary Excellence, 1978 Germain Breé Book Award, Jackpine Press, 1977

In short fiction, he is the only two-time recipient of the American Fiction Prize--in 1991 for “Home Course Advantage,” selected by final judge Louise Erdrich, and in 1993 for “Mule Collector,” selected by final judge Wallace Stegner. In 2010, McCown himself served as final judge for the award.

In writing about McCown’s fiction, fellow novelist Dennis Lehane noted that “Clint McCown may very well be the greatest little-known novelist in America. His compassion and intelligence are unassailable and his prose is incandescent.”

Books

Labyrinthiad (poems, Bard Press, 1975 chapbook) Sidetracks (poems, Jackpine Press 1977) ISBN 0-917492-06-4 paperback Wind Over Water (poems, Northwoods Press, 1984) ISBN 0-89002-218-6 paperback; ISBN 0-89002-219-4 cloth The Member-Guest (novel, cloth, Doubleday, 1995) ISBN 0-385-47655-8 War Memorials (novel, Graywolf Press, cloth,  2000) ISBN 1-55597-312-4  (Houghton     Mifflin, paperback, 2001) ISBN 0-618-12847-6 The Weatherman (novel, Graywolf Press, cloth, 2004) ISBN 1-55597-405-8 Dead Languages (poems, Anhinga Press, 2008) ISBN 978-0-938078-99-9 Haints (novel, New Rivers Press, 2012) ISBN 978-0 89823-266-0 Total Balance Farm (poems, Press 53, 2017) ISBN 978-1-941209-50-9 The Dictionary of Unspellable Noises: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2018 (poems,      Press 53, 2019) ISBN 978-1-941209-88-2 Music for Hard Times: Selected Stories (stories, Press 53, spring 2021) Mr. Potato Head vs, Freud: Lessons on the Craft of Writing Fiction (craft book, Press      53, winter 2021)

Other Work

His poems, essays, and stories have appeared in more than seventy-five anthologies and periodicals, including North American Review, The Sewanee Review, Colorado Review, The Southern Review, Southern Poetry Review, Arts & Letters, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Ascent, Tampa Review, Hawaii Review, Nimrod, Hotel Amerika, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Gettysburg Review,  Northwest Review,  America,  Blackbird, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Golf Digest. Three of his plays have been produced. Additionally, he worked as a screenwriter for Warner Bros. in 1997-98 and served as a Creative Consultant for HBO Television from 2010-13.

External links https://english.vcu.edu/mfa/creative-writing-faculty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7yOFwJRM68 www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v12n2/features/mccown_macdonald/index_mccown.shtml wordsawake.events.wfu.edu vcfa.edu/writing/faculty/clint-mccown news.vcu.edu/article/QandA_with_Clint_McCown_author_of_Haints

References 1 "Interview with Clint McCown, author of Haints (news.vcu.edu/article/QandA_with_Clint_McCown_author_of_Haints) 2 vcfa.edu/writing/faculty/clint-McCown 3 Amazon author biography (https://www.amazon.com/Clint-McCown/e/B001K8LX8Y 4 ibid. 5 Amazon author biography, op.cit 6 "Arts Council Sets by Visiting Artist," Wilmington Star News. Mar.12,1978 7 "Interview with Clint McCown, author of Haints."op.cit. 8 VCU Creative Writing Faculty page (https://english.vcu.edu/mfa/creative-writing-faculty) 9 "Q and A with Author of Haints" (news.vcu.edu/article/QandA_with_Clint_McCown_author_of_Haints) 10 "Writers Hall of Fame" Wake Forest Magazine, Summer 2020, p. 64 11 vcfa.edu/writing/faculty/clint-mcCown op.cit. 12 vcfa.edu/writing/faculty/clint-mcCown op.cit 13 op.cit 14 Davis, Alan; White, Michael eds. (1991) American Fiction. Birch Lane Press. ISBN 1-55972-074-3 15 Davis, Alan; White, Michael eds. (1993) American Fiction. Birch Lane Press. ISBN 1-55972-186-3 16 Kristen J. Tsetsi, ed. (2010) American Fiction Vol 11. New Rivers Press. ISBN 978-089823-253-0 17 The Weatherman by Clint McCown, cover note 18 vcfa.edu/writing/faculty/clint-mccown, op.cit. 19 Amazon author biography, op.cit.