Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Tom Bennitt earned an MFA (Fiction) from the University of Mississippi, where he was a Grisham Fellow and Managing Editor of The Yalobusha Review, and a PhD (English) from the University of Nebraska. His work has appeared in several literary journals, including Texas Review, Prairie Schooner, Word Riot, and Descant. His first novel, a literary thriller called Burning Under, was published in October of 2018 from Stephen F. Austin State University Press. He also has a JD from the Penn State School of Law and once did legal work for a Pennsylvania mining company, an experience that inspired the writing of his novel.
“Trying to see the world as others might seems like an act of respect to me—so long as it isn’t done cynically or sloppily.” Skip Horack talks to Tom Bennitt about work, religion, and history in his fiction.
There are no zombies or vampires in Brad Watson’s new collection, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (W.W. Norton, 2010), but there are plenty of folks who act like they’re either dead or from another planet. And, yes, many of Watson’s characters are “aliens”—not green creatures with large heads, but alienated, isolated. They are people who wander through life without an anchor, who don’t feel the pull of gravity.
