Bio

Long Bio: Stephan Eirik Clark is the author of the novel Sweetness #9 (Little, Brown), named one of the twenty-five best books of 2014 by the editors of Amazon Canada, and the short story collection Vladimir’s Mustache (Russian Life Books 2012), a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award.

Born in West Germany to a Norwegian mother and a Texan father, Clark split much of his childhood between England and the United States. He has lived in five states and five countries, including Ukraine, where he served a Fulbright Fellowship, and Russia.

Clark has taught writing at UC Davis, USC, Reed College, and Kharkiv National University, the second-oldest university in Ukraine. He holds an M.A. in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. A former print and radio journalist and one-time member of USC Film School’s filmic writing division, he currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and teaches creative writing at Augsburg University, where for a long time he led the MFA Program.

Clark’s novel Sweetness #9 was featured on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and The Colbert Report, and reviewed by The Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Oprah, and The Toronto Star, among many other publications. His short stories have been: published in numerous magazines, including Ninth Letter, Cincinnati Review, Witness, and LA Weekly; twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize; short-listed for the Fish Publishing Historical Fiction Prize; and given special mention in Drunken Boat’s inaugural Pan Literary Awards contest, among other honors. His novella, The Castrato of St. Petersburg, was named a finalist in the Ruth Anne Wiley Novella Contest, judged by Josip Novakovich, and later published by Salt Hill.

Clark’s nonfiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Swink, Ninth Letter, Salt Hill and elsewhere, and been recognized as notable in Best of the Web and multiple editions of Best American Essays.

While living in Los Angeles, Clark had a professional manager for his screenwriting, which has been twice optioned. His screenplays have been honored in contests sponsored by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope film studios, the Monterey County Film Commission, and USC Film School. He worked on the film adaptation of his novel for Olympus Pictures.

Short bio: Stephan Eirik Clark is the author the novel Sweetness #9 and the short story collection Vladimir’s Mustache. A former Fulbright Fellow to Ukraine, he teaches at Augsburg University, in Minneapolis.

Pronunciation: STEFF-in A-rik Clark.

Author photos by Stephen Geffre/Augsburg University (left) and Adam Olson (right).