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A self-proclaimed "ministry brat," fiction writer KENT HARUF
grew up in eastern Colorado, where his novels are set. He
studied literature at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, where he would later
teach. He took graduate
courses at the University of Kansas and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, where
he studied with John Irving, Vance Bourjaily, Dan Wakefield, and others. For two years he
taught English in Turkey as a member of the Peace Corps. He was 41
before his first piece of fiction was published, in
Puerto del Sol.
His most recent novels are
Eventide (Alfred A Knopf) and
Plainsong (Alfred A Knopf), winner of
the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and a
finalist for the National Book Award in 1999,
the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award.
His novel The Tie That Binds (Vintage, 2000)
received a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation
from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation. Also the author of Where You Once Belonged
(Vintage, 2000).
He retired from his teaching position at Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale and now
lives with his wife, Cathy, outside Sedelia, Colorado.
Of the great popularity of his work,
Haruf says, "I've been around long enough to know that this is in part a matter
of luck. I don't think it's turned my head. Fame is very seductive and can be
very dangerous if you're trying to get your work done."
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