Blow Up the Ashes

Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Perry Glasser has hung his hat in Tucson, Arizona, Des Moines, Iowa, Wichita, Kansas, and now for 30 years has made his home in Shoe Town America, Haverhill, Massachusetts. He has published more than 50 short stories in literary journals, online and print. His work has twice been featured on National Public Radio's “The Sound of Writing”; he three times won P.E.N. Syndicated Fiction Awards. He has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ucross, Yaddo, the Norman Mailer House, and was a scholar at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference. In consecutive years, he was named winner of the annual Boston Fiction Festival prize. His memoir, Iowa Black Dirt, received First Prize from The Good Men Foundation and subsequently led the contents of that organization’s inaugural anthology. His story, “I-95, Southbound” in 2009 received First Prize in the Gival Press Short Story Award; his surreal novel, Riverton Noir, took First Prize in the press’s annual novel competition in 2011. That same year, he was named Fellow of the Massachusetts Cultural Council for Creative Nonfiction/Memoir. Perry has been a Contributing Editor of North American Review since 1994.