Jack Butler (born 1944 in

Alligator, Mississippi Alligator is a town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 116. In 2009, Tommie "Tomaso" Brown was elected Alligator's first black mayor. He defeated Robert Fava, the mayor since 1979. History Th ...

) is an American writer.

Education

From 1964 to 1966, Butler attended Central Missouri State College, earning an English

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and a Math

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

From there, he attended the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing.

Career

During the 1980s, Butler wrote his first five books: ''West of Hollywood'' (1980), ''Hawk Gumbo and Other Stories'' (1982), ''The Kid Who Wanted to Be a Spaceman'' (1984), ''Jujitsu for Christ'' (1986), and ''

Nightshade The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orna ...

'' (1989). In 1993, ''Living in Little Rock With Miss Little Rock'' was published. In 1988, Butler became assistant dean of

Hendrix College Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Approximately 1,000 students are enrolled, mostly undergraduates. While affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the college offers a secular curriculum and has a stude ...

and, in 1993, he became Director of Creative Writing at the

College of Santa Fe Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD) was a private, for-profit art school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The university was built from the non-profit College of Santa Fe (CSF), a Catholic facility founded as St. Michael's College in 1859, an ...

(now

Santa Fe University of Art and Design Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD) was a private, for-profit art school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The university was built from the non-profit College of Santa Fe (CSF), a Catholic facility founded as St. Michael's College in 1859, and ...

), from which he retired in 2004. While at the College of Santa Fe, he published two more books: ''Jack’s Skillet: Plain Talk and Some Recipes From a Guy in the Kitchen'' (1997, a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

) and ''Dreamer'' (1999).

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

said ''Dreamer'' "...reads like a dream, in fact, intensely vivid, brimming with portent, serendipity and meaning. But it's as discursive and confusing as a dream, subordinating classic thriller elements to a semi-associational flow of events."Dreamer review, from Publishers Weekly
/ref> Since his retirement as a teacher, Butler has published a fifth novel, ''Practicing Zen without a License'', and a young adult sci-fi novel, ''Christmas on a Distant Planet''. He has developed a mathematical theorem that declares the well-known Fibonnaci sequence is only one of a n infinity of possible Fibbonaci sequences, and that these sequences in turn are only one of an infinity of Fibonacci-like sequences he refers to as "parafibs." He continues to paint and to write and publish poetry, fiction, and essays.

References

External links

Biographical entry on Jack Butler.
1944 births Living people American male novelists University of Arkansas alumni Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers {{US-novelist-1940s-stub