About The Author

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Steve Heller

Education

M.F.A., (English & Creative Writing) Bowling Green State University
Ed.D., (English Education) Oklahoma State University
M.S., (English Education) Oklahoma State University
B.A., (English) Oklahoma State University

Bio: Steve Heller

Award-winning novelist, essayist, and short story writer Steve Heller grew up on a small acreage in the wheat country around Yukon, Oklahoma, where many of his fictions take place. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing and English from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and his Ed.D. in English Education from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

Novelist Jonis Agee calls Steve Heller "an authentic American voice who teaches us about the human heart, haunted by misdeeds, mysteries, and longing." Heller is best known for his novel The Automotive History of Lucky Kellerman, originally published by Chelsea Green and subsequently reprinted by Anchor/Doubleday. Lucky Kellerman was a selection of both Book-of-the-Month Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club. Lucky Kellerman also received the Friends of American Writers First Prize Award for the best published book of fiction or nonfiction related to the Midwest.

Heller’s second novel, Father’s Mechanical Universe, was published in 2001 by BkMk Press. Novelist Brent Spencer calls Universe "a touching, elegiac book that races with 120-octane insight." According to W. D. Wetherell, "Father’s Mechanical Universe combines the sharp, concentrated focus of a novel with the tender, lyrical quality of the best memoirs to create one of the most moving accounts of family love I’ve read in years."

Heller's short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and national anthologies, and twice have received O. Henry Awards. He has also received an Individual Fellowship Grant in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts. Many of Heller's stories have been set in Hawai`i, where he has lived for several extended periods, including the spring and summer of 1995 when he served as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hawai`i. His first collection, The Man Who Drank a Thousand Beers (Chariton Review Press), has been called "a Hawaiian Winesburg, Ohio." Hawai`i is also the focus of his most recent fictions, including stories in Nebraska Review, Bamboo Ridge, South Dakota Review, Spirit of Aloha, and A.I.M.: America’s Intercultural Magazine. Heller’s nonfiction has appeared in such publications as Mānoa, Fourth Genre, Flint Hills Review, and In Brief, from W. W. Norton. He is currently finishing his first book of nonfiction, called Walking Through the Moon: A Family Memoir.

Heller has also made his mark as an editor, helping establish two national literary journals: Hawai`i Review, which recently published its 25th anniversary issue, and Mid-American Review, which he conceived and designed in 1980. He has since served on the staffs of Kansas Quarterly and Laurel Review.

In the spring of 2003, after 22 years at Kansas State University, 15 as Chair (1983-1998) of Creative Writing,  Steve Heller has joined the faculty of Antioch University Los Angeles where he is now Professor & Chair of AULA's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, the nation's largest low-residency creative writing program. 

Heller began his teaching career as an English instructor at Ponca City High School in Oklahoma.  In 1990 he received the Kansas Literary Artists Fellowship in Fiction and in 1996 the Kansas Governor's Arts Award, the state's highest literary honor. During the latter year he spent the summer on the Hawaiian island of Lāna`i conducting interviews and other research related to his latest book project: a narrative history of  Lāna`i called Private Island. Heller has given numerous readings, lectures, and .workshops at universities and other forums, from Hawai`i to England.

Teaching Awards

William L. Stamey Undergraduate Teaching Award, 1990, 1993.
S.A.G.E. Outstanding Graduate English Faculty Award, 1988.
Mortar Board Senior Honor Society "Outstanding Teacher Award," 1998.

Teaching Positions

Professor & Chair of Antioch University Los Angeles' Master of Fine Arts Program 
         in Creative Writing, 2003-present

Professor of English (tenured), Kansas State University, 1992-2003. 

          Chair, Creative Writing Program, 1983-1998.

Visiting Tutor, Norwich School of Art & Design, England, March, 1999.

Distinguished Visiting Professor of Creative Writing, University of Hawaii, spring, 1995.

Visiting Fiction Writer-in-Residence, SUNY College of Brockport, Summer Creative 
          Writing Workshop, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1997.

Associate Professor of English (tenured), Kansas State University, 1986-92.
          Assistant Professor of English, Kansas State University, 1981-86.

Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of English, Bowling Green State University,

          Bowling Green, Ohio, 1979-81.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Education, Department of Curriculum & Instruction,   
          Oklahoma State University, 1978-79.

Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant, Department of Curriculum & Instruction,

          Oklahoma State University, 1975-78.

English Instructor, Ponca City High School, Ponca City, Oklahoma, 1973-74.

English Instructor (part time), Chaminade College of Honolulu, Hawaii, 1972-73.

                                                                                                                                        
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