Ron Tanner’s writing has been named “notable” in both Best American Essays and Best American Short Stories and his awards include a Faulkner Society gold medal, a Pushcart Prize, a New Letters Award, a Best of the Web Award, and many others, as well as fellowships from the Michener/Copernicus Society, Sewanee Writers Conference, and the National Park Service, to name a few. He is the author of four books, most recently Missile Paradise, a novel named “notable” by the American Library Association. He teaches writing at Loyola University-Maryland and directs the Marshall Islands Story Project (www.mistories.org [2]). He and his wife live on an historic farm north of Baltimore, Maryland.