David Jauss was born in Windom, grew up in Montevideo, and attended Southwest Minnesota State University, where he also taught from 1974 until 1977, when he enrolled at the University of Iowa, where he received a PhD in English and creative writing. He is the author of four books of fiction, including two volumes of new and selected stories, Glossolalia and Nice People; two books of poetry, Improvising Rivers and You Are Not Here; and the craft book, On Writing Fiction. He has also edited three anthologies, including Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Form, which he co-edited with longtime SMSU professor Philip Dacey. His stories and poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and he is the recipient of the AWP Award for Short Fiction (for Black Maps), an O. Henry Prize, a Best American Short Stories prize, two Pushcart Prizes, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a James A. Michener/Copernicus Society of America fellowship, and one fellowship from the Minnesota Arts Board and three from the Arkansas Arts Council. A professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, he teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.