Allen Wier
Allen Wier (pronounced Wire) is the author of A Place for Outlaws (Harper & Row, 1989), Departing as Air (Simon & Schuster, 1983), and Blanco (LSU Press 1978, Avon/Bard 1980, and Harper & Row 1989) and of a collection of stories, Things About to Disappear (LSU Press 1978 and Avon/Bard 1980). He’s edited an anthology, Walking on Water and other stories (Univ. of Alabama Press 1996), and co-edited Voicelust, a collection of essays on style in contemporary fiction (Univ. of Nebraska Press 1985). He recently completed two new novels. In 1997 he received the Robert Penn Warren Award, conferred by the Fellowship of Southern Writers biennially to “recognize an outstanding young Southern writer of fiction,” and was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 2001. Wier is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship from the University of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters. His fiction, essays, and reviews appear in such publications as Southern Review, Georgia Review, Ploughshares, Texas Review, and the New York Times. He was named Travel Writer of the Year (1994) by the Alabama Bureau of Travel. Wier is completing a new novel, SKIN FOR SKIN, as well as a volume of new and selected short stories. He has taught at Longwood College, Carnegie-Mellon university, Hollins College, the University of Texas, Florida International University, and the University of Alabama.
Born in Texas, an only child, he grew up in Texas, Louisiana, and Mexico–where his father explored the jungles of Veracruz seeking ferns and flowers to import for the wholesale flower business in San Antonio. Allen Wier currently holds the Hodges’ Chair for Distinguished Teaching at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he livs with his wife, Donnie, and their son, Wesley.