Scott A. Winkler
AUTHOR

Scott A. Winkler

Literature & Fiction
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Stories save lives. I've long known this on a subconscious level, but it wasn't until I read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried--and his story "The Lives of the Dead," in particular--that I realized the immensity of their potential. O'Brien "saves" the lives, albeit in fictional form, of men with whom he'd served in Vietnam through the stories in this timeless book, but in that particular story, O'Brien also saves the life of Linda, a nine year-old girl who dies of brain cancer--and he saves the life of Timmy as well, preserving the "everness" evident in the eyes of his nine year-old self looking back from a photograph at the forty-three year-old writer. Call them magic. Call them literary slight of hand. Call them what you will, but stories do save lives. Not physical bodies, but souls. Essence. Memories. They illuminate the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary, and they provide readers with hope: hope that they can overcome the obstacles in their lives; hope that they can comport themselves with dignity, wisdom, grace, even heroism; hope that something taken away from the story, be it large or small, can make a difference in their lives. If my writing can do this for even one of my readers, I'll have succeeded. The act of writing may be solitary, but reading is communal--you and I both bring something to the table, and in the chemistry of that transaction, magic can happen. Lives can be saved. In addition to being an author, I'm a father, a teacher and scholar, and a concerned citizen of a nation yet to achieve its potential. I'm a proud alum of St. Norbert College, and I earned both my MA and Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. My work, both creative and academic, has appeared in a variety of publications ranging from The Journal of Popular Culture and Contemporary Short Story Criticism to Elysian Fields Quarterly and Peninsula Pulse, among others. My debut novel, The Meadow, is a work of historical fiction addressing moral injury and its effects and is being published by Peregrino Press in 2018. My first book, The Wide Turn Toward Home is a baseball-themed collection of seven short stories and the eponymous novella; it explores hopes, dreams, and their consequences and was published in 2008. My daughter and I make our home in northeast Wisconsin. Please visit my site www.scottawinkler.com for even more information about my work and motivation, links to material I've written and coverage of my work, and my blog. I look forward to seeing you there!
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