Ron Carlson is the author of ten books of fiction, most recently his novel The Signal (Viking, 2009). His other works of fiction include Five Skies (Viking, 2007), which was the 2009 Reading Across Rhode Island selection for the “One Book, One State” project; A Kind of Flying (Norton, 2003); The Speed of Light (HarperCollins, 2003); At the Jim Bridger (Picador, 2002); The Hotel Eden (Norton, 1997); Plan B for the Middle Class (Norton, 1992); The News of the World (Norton, 1987); Truants (Norton, 1981); and Betrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Norton, 1977). He has also written a book on writing, Ron Carlson Writes a Story (Graywolf Press, 2007), and a book of poetry, Room Service (Red Hen Press, 2012).

His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and other journals, as well as The Best American Short Stories, The O’Henry Prize Series, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, and other anthologies. Carlson was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction, the 2009 Aspen Literary Award from the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, the 2008 McGinnis Award from the Iowa Review, and the 1993 Cohen Award from Ploughshares. A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Carlson codirects the MFA Program in Writing at the University of California–Irvine and is an emeritus professor at Arizona State University.  

Photo by Tracy Hall