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Grant Faulkner is an American writer, the former executive director ofNational Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the co-founder of the online literary journal100 Word Story, the co-host of the podcast Write-minded,[1] and an Executive Producer ofAmerica's Next Great Author.[2]
Grant Faulkner | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Fiction writer, essayist, co-founder of 100 Word Story |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Grinnell College (BA) San Francisco State University (MA) |
| Notable work | Fissures Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo All the Comfort Sin Can Provide |
| Spouse | Heather Mackey |
| Children | 2 |
Grant Faulkner was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He earned a B.A. in English from Grinnell College and an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University.[3] He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the writer Heather Mackey, and their two children.[4]
In 2011, Faulkner and Lynn Mundell co-founded100 Word Story, an online literary journal that publishes stories that are exactly100 words long.[5] Stories published in100 Word Story have been included on Wigleaf’s Top (Very) Short Fictions list[6] and anthologized in the annualBest Small Fictions series and W.W Norton'sNew Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction.[7]
From 2012 to 2023, he was executive director ofNational Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), taking over from founder Chris Baty.[8][9] In an interview, he claimed that nearly 500,000 people, including 100,000 kids and teens participated in the event every year.[10] He left to focus on developing the TV show,America's Next Great Author,[11] as an Executive Producer.[11]
In 2014, Faulkner co-founded the Flash Fiction Collective, a reading series in San Francisco, with writers Jane Ciabattari and Meg Pokrass. Kristen Chen joined the trio in 2015.
In 2018, Faulkner launched the podcast "Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers" with co-host Brooke Warner of SheWrites.com.
Additionally, Faulkner serves on theNational Writing Project's Writer's Council,[12] Left Margin Lit's Advisory Council,[13] Aspen Words' Creative Council,[14] and the LitNet Steering Committee.[15]
Faulkner’s stories and essays have appeared in dozens of publications, includingThe New York Times,Poets & Writers,Writer’s Digest,Lit Hub,Tin House,The Southwest Review,The Gettysburg Review,Five Points,Green Mountains Review, andPuerto del Sol. His stories have also been anthologized in W.W. Norton’sNew Micro: Especially Short Fiction,Best Small Fictions 2016, andBloomsbury’s Short-Form Creative Writing, among others.
In 2015, Faulkner releasedFissures, a collection of one hundred 100-word stories, published byPress 53.
One reviewer wrote, “In Grant Faulkner’s collection of very short fiction,Fissures [One Hundred 100-Word Stories], Faulkner manages to elevate his language, presenting each word here with the rhetorical weight of a novel and with a poetic aptitude that is anything but self-indulgent. Faulkner has, instead, carefully crafted these stories, and each word comes at the reader as high currency.”[16]
The 100-word story form is often likened toprose poetry,[17] which is one thing that drew Faulkner to the form. “I’ve always liked forms that blur,” he said. “To say that a piece of writing is a prose poem versus a story is just a matter of an author’s intention, an author’s definition.”[18] In 2018, he co-edited a collection of the best stories published in100 Word Story,Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story with Lynn Mundell and Beret Olsen.
Faulkner is also known for his writings on the creative process. In 2017, Faulkner publishedPep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo. In 2019, he co-authoredBrave the Page, a teen writing guide. His book onflash fiction,The Art of Brevity was published in 2023 by theUniversity of New Mexico Press.
Faulkner regularly presents at conferences, including the Frankfurt Book Fair, Book Expo America, the Bay Area Book Festival, the Oakland Book Festival, Litquake, the Writer’s Digest Conference, and the San Francisco Writers Conference, among others.[9]
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