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Kent Meyers was born in Morgan, Minn., and grew up on a farm there. His
father died when he was 16 and he and his brothers operated the family farm
until it was sold. This helps him understand the farming situations, as is
revealed in some of the stories. Meyers went on to graduate from the
University of Minnesota and Morris and received his Masters Degree at
Washington State in Pullman, Wash. He began writing immediately after
graduate school and tries to write about three hours a day, getting up about
5 a.m. to do so.
"I try to write about two pages a day," he said. "(I) am
now working on a novel based in South Dakota."
He and his wife, Zindie, and three children, Derck, Lauren and Jordan,
moved to Spearfish when he began teaching English Literature and writing
classes at Black Hills State University.
Meyers had submitted a number of stories to various publications
including the Georgia Review, Southern Review, Crazy Horse as well as an
anthology in the Best of the West. Two different publishers read his story
in the Georgia Review and called about it.
He submitted 15 essays to the University of Minnesota Publishing and they
suggested he unify and write them.
"Three different publishing houses are handling my work,"
Meyerssaid. "I do have an agent, Noah Lukeman. They have so many
more contacts to get through to an actual editor and an agent is better able
to protect your interests and deal with contracts--that is a mystery word to
me," Meyers explained.
"Editors receive so many manuscripts with so little time to read
through them that an agent is really a help," he continued.
Meyers received the Minnesota Book Award and the Friends of American
Writers Award as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the
Arts and the South Dakota Arts Council.
Local readers will be interested in knowing that the author of the book,
"Light in the Crossing," lives in Spearfish. His other
publications include the novel, "The River Warren" and the
collection of essays, "The Witness of Combines."