Jack Butler (born 1944 in

Alligator, Mississippi Alligator is a town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 116. In 2009, Tommie "Tomaso" Brown was elected Alligator's first black mayor. He defeated Robert Fava, the mayor since 1979. Etymology T ...

) is an American writer.

Education

From 1964 to 1966, Butler attended Central Missouri State College, earning an English

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

and a Math B.S. From there, he attended the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

and earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing.

Career

During the 1980s, Butler wrote his first five books: ''West of Hollywood'' (1980), ''Hawk Gumbo and Other Stories'' (1982), ''The Kid Who Wanted to Be a Spaceman'' (1984), ''Jujitsu for Christ'' (1986), and ''

Nightshade Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many me ...

'' (1989). In 1993, ''Living in Little Rock With Miss Little Rock'' was published. In 1988, Butler became assistant dean of

Hendrix College Hendrix College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Approximately 1,000 students are enrolled, mostly undergraduates. While affiliated with the United Methodist Chu ...

and, in 1993, he became Director of Creative Writing at the

College of Santa Fe A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

(now

Santa Fe University of Art and Design Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD) was a private for-profit art school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The university was built from the non-profit College of Santa Fe (CSF), a Catholic facility founded as St. Michael's College in 1859, and ...

), from which he retired in 2004. While at the College of Santa Fe, he published two more books: ''Jack’s Skillet: Plain Talk and Some Recipes From a Guy in the Kitchen'' (1997, a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

) and ''Dreamer'' (1999). ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' said ''Dreamer'' "...reads like a dream, in fact, intensely vivid, brimming with portent, serendipity and meaning. But it's as discursive and confusing as a dream, subordinating classic thriller elements to a semi-associational flow of events."Dreamer review, from Publishers Weekly
/ref> Since his retirement as a teacher, Butler has published a fifth novel, ''Practicing Zen without a License'', and a young adult sci-fi novel, ''Christmas on a Distant Planet''. He has developed a mathematical theorem that declares the well-known Fibonnaci sequence is only one of a n infinity of possible Fibbonaci sequences, and that these sequences in turn are only one of an infinity of Fibonacci-like sequences he refers to as "parafibs." He continues to paint and to write and publish poetry, fiction, and essays.

References

External links

Biographical entry on Jack Butler.
1944 births Living people American male novelists University of Arkansas alumni Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New Mexico People from Bolivar County, Mississippi Novelists from Mississippi University of Central Missouri alumni Hendrix College faculty College of Santa Fe faculty 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers {{US-novelist-1940s-stub