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Grant Faulkner

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Grant Faulkner is an American writer, the former executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the co-founder of the online literary journal 100 Word Story, the co-host of the podcast Write-minded,[1] and an Executive Producer of America's Next Great Author.[2]

Grant Faulkner
OccupationFiction writer, essayist, co-founder of 100 Word Story
NationalityAmerican
EducationGrinnell College (BA)
San Francisco State University (MA)
Notable workFissures
Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo
All the Comfort Sin Can Provide
SpouseHeather Mackey
Children2

Biography

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Grant Faulkner was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He earned a B.A. in English from Grinnell College and an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University.[3] He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the writer Heather Mackey, and their two children.[4]

In 2011, Faulkner and Lynn Mundell co-founded 100 Word Story, an online literary journal that publishes stories that are exactly 100 words long.[5] Stories published in 100 Word Story have been included on Wigleaf’s Top (Very) Short Fictions list[6] and anthologized in the annual Best Small Fictions series and W.W Norton's New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction.[7]

From 2012 to 2023, he was executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), taking over from founder Chris Baty.[8][9] In an interview, he claimed that nearly 500,000 people, including 100,000 kids and teens participated in the event every year.[10] He left to focus on developing the TV show, America's Next Great Author,[11] as an Executive Producer.[11]

In 2014, Faulkner co-founded the Flash Fiction Collective, a reading series in San Francisco, with writers Jane Ciabattari and Meg Pokrass. Kristen Chen joined the trio in 2015.

In 2018, Faulkner launched the podcast "Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers" with co-host Brooke Warner of SheWrites.com.

Additionally, Faulkner serves on the National Writing Project's Writer's Council,[12] Left Margin Lit's Advisory Council,[13] Aspen Words' Creative Council,[14] and the LitNet Steering Committee.[15]

Literary work

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Faulkner’s stories and essays have appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, Lit Hub, Tin House, The Southwest Review, The Gettysburg Review, Five Points, Green Mountains Review, and Puerto del Sol. His stories have also been anthologized in W.W. Norton’s New Micro: Especially Short Fiction, Best Small Fictions 2016, and Bloomsbury’s Short-Form Creative Writing, among others.

In 2015, Faulkner released Fissures, a collection of one hundred 100-word stories, published by Press 53.

One reviewer wrote, “In Grant Faulkner’s collection of very short fiction, Fissures [One Hundred 100-Word Stories], Faulkner manages to elevate his language, presenting each word here with the rhetorical weight of a novel and with a poetic aptitude that is anything but self-indulgent. Faulkner has, instead, carefully crafted these stories, and each word comes at the reader as high currency.”[16]

The 100-word story form is often likened to prose poetry,[17] which is one thing that drew Faulkner to the form. “I’ve always liked forms that blur,” he said. “To say that a piece of writing is a prose poem versus a story is just a matter of an author’s intention, an author’s definition.”[18] In 2018, he co-edited a collection of the best stories published in 100 Word Story, Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story with Lynn Mundell and Beret Olsen.

Faulkner is also known for his writings on the creative process. In 2017, Faulkner published Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo. In 2019, he co-authored Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. His book on flash fiction, The Art of Brevity was published in 2023 by the University of New Mexico Press.

Faulkner regularly presents at conferences, including the Frankfurt Book Fair, Book Expo America, the Bay Area Book Festival, the Oakland Book Festival, Litquake, the Writer’s Digest Conference, and the San Francisco Writers Conference, among others.[9]

List of works

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Books

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  • The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story (University of New Mexico Press, February 2023)
  • All the Comfort Sin Can Provide
  • Brave the Page: A Young Writers Guide to Telling Epic Stories
  • Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story
  • Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo
  • Fissures

Selected short stories

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Essays

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Selected interviews

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References

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  1. ^ "Write-minded Podcast". Write-minded Podcast.
  2. ^ O’Sullivan, Joanne. "'America's Next Great Author' Competition Films Pilot". PublishersWeekly.com.
  3. ^ "One Month, 50,000 Words - SF State Magazine Spring/Summer 2013". Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2015-06-29.
  4. ^ "Creating a New Generation of Hemingways. Novelist Grant Faulkner '87 inspires would-be novelists during NaNoWriMo" (PDF). The Grinnell Magazine. 46 (1): 32. ISSN 1539-0950.
  5. ^ ""We'll Always Publish a Good Story." A Chat With Grant Faulkner, Editor of 100 Word Story - The Review Review". www.thereviewreview.net. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2015-06-29.
  6. ^ "The Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions of 2015". wigleaf.com.
  7. ^ http://queensferrypress.com/blog/tag/the-best-small-fictions/
  8. ^ "An interview with Grant Faulkner, OLL's new Executive Director!". National Novel Writing Month.
  9. ^ a b "Bio". grantfaulkner.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  10. ^ "Grant Faulkner: A Modern Day Pioneer Inspiring Creativity Through Writing". 2 November 2014.
  11. ^ a b "America's Next Great Author | Reality show for writers". americasnextgreatauthor.com.
  12. ^ "Writers Council". National Writing Project.
  13. ^ "Left Margin LIT: Creative Writing in Berkeley". leftmarginlit.
  14. ^ "About Us".
  15. ^ "About".
  16. ^ "Microfiction at Work: A Review of Fissures by Grant Faulkner - Atticus Review". 1 June 2015.
  17. ^ "Is It Prose Poetry, Short Prose, Or Flash Fiction? - Writer's Relief, Inc". 18 July 2013.
  18. ^ "An Interview with Grant Faulkner | s [r] blog". Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2015-06-29.
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