Alan Kent Haruf (1943–2014) was an American writer born and raised inColorado. He wrote six novels and several short stories set on theHigh Plains. As a young man Haruf enrolled in thePeace Corps inlieu of military service before receiving a master's degree from theUniversity of Iowa. He initially struggled to establish a career as a writer. Haruf spent years teaching English at a high school and at universities. His writing was first published in 1984 when he was 41. Commercial success eluded him until the publication ofPlainsong in 1999, which became a bestseller. Throughout Haruf's career, critics praised his spare and elegant prose, authentic portrayals of rural life, and attention to the beauty found in ordinary things, although he was occasionally criticized for redundancy. A Colorado magazine,5280, wrote that Haruf is "widely considered Colorado's finest novelist", and theDublin Review of Books called his work "both uniquely American and profoundly universal".(Full article...)