Grant Faulkner is an American writer, the former executive director of
National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo ( ), was a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promoted creative writing around the world. Its flagship program was an annual, international creative writing event in which participa ...
(NaNoWriMo), the co-founder of the online literary journal ''
100 Word Story'', the co-host of the podcast Write-minded, and an Executive Producer of ''America's Next Great Author''.
Biography
Grant Faulkner was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He earned a B.A. in English from Grinnell College and an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the writer Heather Mackey, and their two children.
In 2011, Faulkner and Lynn Mundell co-founded ''100 Word Story'', an online literary journal that publishes stories that are exactly
100 words long. Stories published in ''100 Word Story'' have been included on Wigleaf’s Top (Very) Short Fictions list and anthologized in the annual ''Best Small Fictions'' series and W.W Norton's ''New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction''.
From 2012 to 2023, he was executive director of
National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo ( ), was a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promoted creative writing around the world. Its flagship program was an annual, international creative writing event in which participa ...
(NaNoWriMo), taking over from founder Chris Baty.
In an interview, he claimed that nearly 500,000 people, including 100,000 kids and teens participated in the event every year. He left to focus on developing the TV show, ''America's Next Great Author'',
as an Executive Producer.
In 2014, Faulkner co-founded the Flash Fiction Collective, a reading series in San Francisco, with writers Jane Ciabattari and Meg Pokrass. Kristen Chen joined the trio in 2015.
In 2018, Faulkner launched the podcast "Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers" with co-host Brooke Warner of SheWrites.com.
Additionally, Faulkner serves on the
National Writing Project's Writer's Council, Left Margin Lit's Advisory Council, Aspen Words' Creative Council, and the LitNet Steering Committee.
Literary work
Faulkner’s stories and essays have appeared in dozens of publications, including ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'' ...
'', ''
Writer’s Digest
''Writer's Digest'' is an American magazine aimed at beginning and established writers. It contains interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles.
History
''Writer's Digest'' was first published in December 1920 und ...
'', ''Lit Hub'', ''Tin House'', ''
The Southwest Review'', ''
The Gettysburg Review
''The Gettysburg Review'' was a quarterly literary magazine featuring short stories, poetry, essays and reviews. Work that appeared in the magazine has been reprinted in "best-of" anthologies and received awards.
The magazine was "recognized ...
'', ''Five Points'', ''
Green Mountains Review
''Green Mountains Review'' is an American literary journal published biannually at Johnson State College in Vermont, founded by senior editor Neil Shepard and currently edited by Elizabeth Powell and Jacob White.
''Green Mountains Review'' was ...
'', and ''
Puerto del Sol''. His stories have also been anthologized in W.W. Norton’s ''New Micro: Especially Short Fiction'', ''Best Small Fictions 2016'', and ''Bloomsbury’s Short-Form Creative Writing'', among others.
In 2015, Faulkner released ''Fissures'', a collection of one hundred 100-word stories, published by
Press 53.
One reviewer wrote, “In Grant Faulkner’s collection of very short fiction, ''Fissures''
ne Hundred 100-Word Stories
NE, Ne or ne may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Neutral Evil, an alignment in the American role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons''
* New Edition, an American vocal group
* Nicomachean Ethics, a collection of ten books by Greek philosopher Ar ...
Faulkner manages to elevate his language, presenting each word here with the rhetorical weight of a novel and with a poetic aptitude that is anything but self-indulgent. Faulkner has, instead, carefully crafted these stories, and each word comes at the reader as high currency.”
The 100-word story form is often likened to
prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...
, which is one thing that drew Faulkner to the form. “I’ve always liked forms that blur,” he said. “To say that a piece of writing is a prose poem versus a story is just a matter of an author’s intention, an author’s definition.”
In 2018, he co-edited a collection of the best stories published in ''100 Word Story'', ''Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story'' with Lynn Mundell and Beret Olsen.
Faulkner is also known for his writings on the creative process. In 2017, Faulkner published ''Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo''. In 2019, he co-authored ''Brave the Page'', a teen writing guide. His book on
flash fiction
Flash fiction is a brief fictional narrative that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the For sale: baby shoes, never worn, six-word story; the 280-character story (also kn ...
, ''The Art of Brevity'' was published in 2023 by the
University of New Mexico Press
The University of New Mexico Press (UNMP) is a university press at the University of New Mexico. It was founded in 1929 and published pamphlets for the university in its early years before expanding into quarterlies and books. Its administrativ ...
.
Faulkner regularly presents at conferences, including the Frankfurt Book Fair, Book Expo America, the Bay Area Book Festival, the Oakland Book Festival, Litquake, the Writer’s Digest Conference, and the San Francisco Writers Conference, among others.
List of works
Books
* ''The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story''
University of New Mexico Press February 2023)
* ''All the Comfort Sin Can Provide''
* ''Brave the Page: A Young Writers Guide to Telling Epic Stories''
* ''Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story''
* ''Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo''
*''Fissures''
Selected short stories
"Charms"- Fiction Southeast
"First Time"- New Flash Fiction Review
- decomP
"Six Stories About Gerard and Celeste"- Paragraph Magazine
"Bright Mess"- Superstition Review
"Bodies at Risk in Motion"- Green Mountains Review
- Counterexample Poetics
- Flash Flood
* "Filter" - The Cortland Review
- Eclectica
"Model Upside Down on the Stairs"- PANK
"Life Knowledge"- Revolver
"The Names of All Things"- The Southwest Review
Essays
13 Ways of Looking at Flash Fiction�� Lit Hub
"Life By the Bay: A Moveable Feast That Moved When I Wasn’t Looking"Lit Hub
Rejection’s Gift: Divine Dissatisfaction�� Poets & Writers
Imagination Under Pressure– Poets & Writers
The Art of Seduction: How to Entice and Captivate Your Readers– Writer’s Digest
One Hundred Reasons Why I Write- National Writing Project
Naked (On the Page) and Afraid- Writer’s Digest
Writing Flash Fiction: Telling a Story with What’s Left Out- Writer’s Digest
More Ideas Faster: Writing With Abandon- Poets & Writers
Going Long. Going Short.- New York Times Draft Blog
What Makes NaNoWriMo Work: Breaking Down the Mythology of the Solitary Writer- Writer’s Digest
Selected interviews
A Salve for Our General Malaise: Grant Faulkner Interviewed by Taylor LarsenBomb Magazine
All the Comfort Sin Provides�� First Draft
"Stories That Matter”�� The Nob Hill Gazette
"Shards and Gems": An Interview With Guest Reader Grant Faulkner- Smokelong Quarterly
The Writer's Digest Podcast, Episode 8: Interview with NaNoWriMo Executive Director Grant Faulkner- Writer's Digest
- Millions
An Interview with Grant Faulkner- Superstition Review
An Interview with Grant Faulkner, author of Fissures- Fiction Southeast
The Write Stuff: Grant Faulkner on Watching Objects Rust and the Slow Reveal- SF Weekly’s Litseen
How could creative expression not change the world? Interview with Grant Faulkner- Art Is Moving
Grant Faulkner: A Modern Day Pioneer Inspiring Creativity Through Writing– Unzpipped
An Interview with NaNoWriMo’s New Executive Director– NaNoWriMo blog
References
External links
*
Grant Faulkner on TwitterNational Novel Writing Month100 Word StoryFlash Fiction CollectiveGrant Faulkner on Substack
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faulkner, Grant
People from Oskaloosa, Iowa
Grinnell College alumni
San Francisco State University alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American male writers
21st-century American writers