Tom Bissell - Red Cedar Review Co-Editor, 1994-1996

Tom Bissell was born in Escanaba, Michigan, in 1974, and attended Michigan State University. In his time at MSU Tom majored in English and co-edited the Red Cedar Review with Laura Klynstra. His relationship with the RCR began in 1994, when his short story “Bars,” the first story he ever published, appeared in vol. 30 no.2. He then went on to edit the RCR from 1994 to 1996 (vol. 31, 32, and 33). After graduating from MSU, he spent time in Uzbekistan with the Peace Corps. Upon his return to the States he worked as a book editor in New York City for both W.W. Norton and Henry Holt, editing books such as The Collected Stories of Richard Yates and Paula Fox’s memoir Borrowed Finery.

Tom won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his short-story collection God Lives in St. Petersburg, and spent most of 2007 living in Rome. His first book, Chasing the Sea, was recently selected (August 2007) by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the 86 best travel books of all time.

He is currently living and working in Las Vegas, where he is a Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada. His current projects are a novel set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and a nonfiction book provisionally titled Bones That Shine Like Fire: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve Apostles.

His essays, fiction, and journalism have appeared in Agni, The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Believer, Best American Science Writing 2004, Best American Short Stories 2005, Best American Travel Writing 2003 and 2005 and 2006, BOMB, The Boston Review, Esquire, Granta, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, Men’s Journal, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and The Virginia Quarterly Review.

Books:

  • Chasing the Sea (2003)
  • Speak, Commentary (with Jeff Alexander, 2003)
  • God Lives in St. Petersburg: and Other Stories (2005)
  • The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam (2007)