I’m teeing off at a golf course. Despite my not ever having played the game, my swing is textbook perfect, and I drive the ball far and high over the fairway, sand traps, trees, and ponds. I’m admiring its straight-as-an-archer’s arrow trajectory, when it meets a flock of white doves, turns into one of them, and soars away.
Shawn Shiflett is an Associate Professor in the English and Creative Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago. His debut novel, Hidden Place (Akashic Books, 2004), received rave reviews from newspapers, literary magazines, and Connie Martinson Talks Books (national cable television, UK and Ireland). Library Journal included Hidden Place in “Summer Highs, Fall Firsts,” a 2004 list of most successful debuts. He was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for his work and was a three-time Finalist for the James novel-in-progress contest, sponsored by the Heekin Group Foundation. New City Newspaper elected Shiflett to their Chicago Lit 50 list, an annual ranking of top figures in the Chicago Literary scene. His essay, “The Importance of Reading to Your Writing” (Creative Writing Studies, UK) was published in 2013. His novel, Hey, Liberal! (Chicago Review Press, 2016), a story about a white boy going to a predominately African American high school in Chicago during the late 1960’s, has received acclaim from Booklist, The Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Review, Newcity Lit, Windy City Review, Mary Mitchell (Chicago Sun-Times), Rick Kogan (WGN Radio), and others. Excerpts from Shiflett’s novels and short stories can be found in Hypertext Magazine, various issues of F Magazine, and other literary journals. In 2018, he performed his oral story performance “How My Yo-Yo Could Have Gotten me Killed,” and in 2019 he performed “Oriole Park, from White America to Multicultural America.” He is on the Chicago Writers Association Board of Directors. Currently, he is working on a non-fiction, multicultural project: collecting oral stories concerning race. Several pieces from his work-in-progress My Secret Lives (a murmur of dreams), will be forthcoming in Hypertext Magazine, fall 2019. Shiflett lives with his wife, a couple of step-cats, and an English setters named Higgins.
Shawnshiflett.com
