The Long Version
As a boy, I spent my allowance on all sorts of pens and paper, so there was never much question I would become a writer. I received my B.A. from Grinnell College in English and my M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
It seems like I should have other degrees, such as an MFA in Novels about People Doing Nothing But Walking Around, a PhD in Collages and Doodles and Stick Drawings of Fruitless Pursuits, or a Knighthood in Insomniac Studies, but I don’t.
I have published in such publications as The New York Times, Poets & Writers, LitHub, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, The Southwest Review, Tin House, The Gettysburg Review, Five Points, The Rumpus, Gargoyle, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Puerto del Sol, PANK, Superstition Review, and The Green Mountain Review, among others. My stories have been nominated for the Pushcart prize and included in such collections as W.W. Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions 2016.
I just published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, with Black Lawrence Press. I’ve written two books on writing. My collection of essays on creativity, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Prompts to Boost Your Creative Mojo, came out from Chronicle Books in October 2017. I co-authored Brave the Page, a teen writing guide, with Rebecca Stern, and it was released by Viking in 2019. My collection of one hundred 100-word stories, Fissures, was published by Press 53. Also, I edited Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story with Lynn Mundell and Beret Olsen.
By day, I’m the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month, Co-founder of the lit journal 100 Word Story, Co-founder of the Flash Fiction Collective, a member of the National Writing Project Writers Council, a member of Lit Camp’s Advisory Council, and a member of the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Words’ Creative Council. I also co-host the Write-minded podcast.
Oh, and I’ve presented at such shindigs as the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Associated Writing Programs Conference, Book Expo America, the Chicago Humanities Festival, the Oakland Book Festival, the Bay Area Book Festival, Poets & Writers Live, the San Francisco Writers Conference, the Commonwealth Club, the Digital Publishing Innovation Summit, Writers Digest West, the Porchlight storytelling series, Litquake, Lit Crawl, the Mendocino Writers Conference, CreativeLive, the Arizona State Library Association’s YA Summit, and the Sierra Writers Conference.
The Shorter Version
Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published two books on writing, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo, and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. He’s also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. He serves on the National Writing Project’s Writer’s Council, Lit Camp’s Advisory Council, and Aspen Words’ Creative Council. He’s also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded.
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Photo credit: Dan Cowles
