Robert Olen Butler
Butler has written three collections of stories, most recently Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards (Grove/Atlantic, 2004). He has also authored ten novels, including They Whisper (Holt, 1994), Tabloid Dreams (Holt, 1996), Mr. Spaceman (Grove, 2000), and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Holt, 1992), the collection that won him America's highest writing honor in 1993. He has also written screenplays for Hollywood's major studios, and his stories have been included in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories.
In May, 2001, Butler was awarded the National Fiction Award for his short story "Fair Warning," which was published in Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope: All Story. The story, which follows a female auctioneer in the world of high-dollar sales, is the basis for Butler's upcoming novel of the same name.