John Mort’s first novel, Soldier in Paradise (1999), from the late, lamented Southern Methodist, was widely reviewed and won the W. Y. Boyd Award for best military fiction. He has published seven other books, including two readers advisory works, Christian Fiction and Read the High Country: A Guide to Westerns; two novels, Goat Boy of the Ozarks and The Illegal; and three collections of stories, Tanks, The Walnut King, and DONT MEAN NOTHIN: Vietnam War Stories. His short stories have appeared in a wide variety of magazines, including The New Yorker, Missouri Review, the Chicago Tribune, the Arkansas Review, and in Sixfold, online at https://www.sixfold.org/FicWinter14/Mort.html. He is the winner of a National Endowment for the Arts literary grant, the Hackney Award, and a Western Writers of America Spur for the short story, “The Hog Whisperer.” In 2017 he was awarded the Sullivan Prize for his short story collection, DOWN ALONG THE PINEY. It will be published in 2018 by the University of Notre Dame Press.
John Mort served with the First Cavalry from 1968 through 1970 as a rifleman and RTO. He attended the University of Iowa, from which he earned a B.A. in English (1972), an MFA in writing (1974), and an MLS (1976). He worked as a librarian, editor, and teacher. He lives in southern Missouri with his wife and owns a cabin on Stockton Lake, where he grows vegetables and fruit.
Down along the Piney 