"The Lost Episodes," a story from the opening pages of my forthcoming novel, won the Midwest Short Fiction prize from The Laurel Review. Judge EJ Levy said some very nice things:

"This is a wonderful story; laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, and wise, it is among the most engaging pieces of short fiction that I’ve read in ages, displaying true wit, great tenderness, and an all-American voice that seems both authentic and guileless, even as it subtly skewers that peculiar made-in-America brand of religious fervor. From the off-hand poetry of its prose (“When my father met my mother, he was a twenty-two-year-old country club pro with a swing as strong and beautiful as the high note in the National Anthem”) to the hilarious dialogue, to the weirdly credible illogic of an aspiring young prophet, “The Lost Episodes” reveals the dangerous psychology undergirding that terribly American longing to be exceptional and salvific."

Wow. Humbling. And let me say this: her writing > my writing.

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This is it. IT IS HAPPENING. My novel, The Lost Episodes of Revie Bryson, is going to be published in late 2012 by Black Lawrence Press. Could. Not. Be. Happier.

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Chris Newgent targets me for one of his famous "Awful Interviews" here. But which part is more awful—the questions or my answers? It's kind of neck-and-neck. You make the call. 

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My story "Man of Steel" has been selected for Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010, and New Stories from the Midwest.  The piece originally appeared in Ninth Letter in the fall of 2009.  Here's one piece about it from Butler's site, and in case you can't get enough of that Furuness stuff, here's another piece from Butler's student paper, the Collegian.  Don't be alarmed when you see the photo.  It's alarmingly bad.  Driver-license bad.  Geez-did-that-guy-have-a-stroke bad.  Damn, am I unphotogenic.