Gender

Male

Location

Sedona, AZ

Birthday:

March 5

About Me:

I'm Zack. I was born on the east coast of the US in 1980, but I've spent most of my 30+ years in Sedona, Arizona, with shorter stints in Maine, Oregon, Utah, and Chile. Unlike most of the authorly folks I know, I didn't start reading in earnest until my mid-teens, and didn't commit to writing until my late 20s. Oh, well. From the start, I always knew what I most enjoyed reading, so when it came time to start writing stories I didn't have to think too hard about what I wanted to write about: Robots, immortals, aliens, that kind of stuff. Yep, I write science fiction, or, depending on how you look at it, fantasy. My stories deal a lot with issues of religion, ethics, and identity. In the half-decade I've been writing, I've been lucky enough to be published in places like Asimov's Science Fiction, Murky Depths, Escape Pod, and Crossed Genres (my bibliography is below). Tackling a longer work took a while, but in early 2011 I finished my first novel, No Return, which mixes space opera-like stuff with epic fantasy-like stuff. It's not published yet, but I've got my fingers and toes crossed that it will be soon. My jobs have run the general gamut, I guess. I've been a bank teller, a bookseller, a night auditor, a carwasher, a barista, a candy maker, a bearing salesman / hydraulic hose builder, a bartender, an editor, and -- for one tough week -- an organic farmer. But what I really want to do is teach writing at the university level. As for education, I have a BA in Religious Studies from Northern Arizona University and an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program. I love riding around on bikes / skateboards / wheelchairs, taking baths, driving slowly and in the snow, swimming, watching sitcoms, jumping on or off things, eating at buffets, paddling or rowing a boat, shopping for books and antiques, hitting baseballs and shooting hoops alone, playing Mario Kart, and chopping wood. My favorite foods are Ma Po Tofu (without the pork), spicy sushi rolls of all varieties, and everything I've ever tasted in Ethiopian restaurants. I can't stand people who need big, fast, powerful cars, and I absolutely hate tucking in my shirt and wearing a necktie.

Relationship Status:

Single

Your Occupation

Driver/Writer

Website 1:

https://zacharyjernigan.blogspot.com