After Brian Evenson published his first collection of short stories, Altmann’s Tongue, in 1996, he was warned by the Mormon church to stop writing. Instead, Evenson chose to leave his teaching post at Brigham Young University and, ultimately, to leave the Mormon faith.
Brian Evenson’s fiction offers frank, often stark looks at the dark underbelly of religious faith. A recent review from Meridian magazine called Evenson "…a writer so good you want to tell your friends about him, but don’t because you’re afraid of what they might think of you….Evenson’s sure had with pacing allow[s] him to create gorgeous, disturbing scenes that generate a feeling of growing panic that never feels cheap or forced."
Evenson is currently the Director of the Literary Arts Program at Brown University. He is the author of six books of fiction, most recently The Open Curtain. He has translated work by Chrstian Gailly, Jean Frèmon, and Jacques Jouet and received an O. Henry Prize.
Evenson will be teaching at the 2007 Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, July 15-22 at Fort Worden State Park. He will be teaching a "New Works" class, helping students develop new strategies for exploring fictional territory they may have been previously nervous to approach. In addition, Evenson will give a public reading on Saturday, July 21, at 7:30 pm at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater.