Steve Yarbrough

Steve Yarbrough (born August 29 1956) is a novelist and short story writer.

Born in Indianola, Mississippi, he received his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Mississippi and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. Writing largely within the Southern tradition, he draws his themes and characters from Southern history and mores in ways that have been compared to Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and Willie Morris.{Bill Nichols, USA Today, Sept. 9, 1999: "Oxygen Resuscitates Southern Fiction"}

Yarbrough's major works include the novels "Prisoners of War" (2004), "Visible Spirits" (2001) and "The Oxygen Man" (1999), as well as short story collections such as "Family Men" (1990), "Mississippi History" (1994) and "Veneer" (1998). His latest novel, "The End of California", was published in 2006.

His honors include the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His novel, "Prisoners of War", was a finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner award. [Noted by USA Today ] His work has been translated into Dutch, Japanese and Polish and published in the United Kingdom.

Currently (2007), Steve Yarbrough is the James and Coke Hallowell Professor of Creative Writing at California State University, Fresno and the director of the school's M.F.A program in Creative Writing.

He is married to the Polish literary translator Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough and they have two daughters, Tosha and Lena. For most of the year he lives in Fresno. He spends the remainder of his time in Krakow.

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