Penn Stewartis the award-winning author of the novelFertile Groundand the short story collectionThe Water In Our Viens.His short fiction has been widely published, and his work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Penn's essays, poetry, and photographs have also been published in print and in online journals across the world.

Penn Stewart is also the pen name for Dr. John Schulze, Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Midwestern State University in Texas. He hosts the Red River Reading Series and The James Hoggard Reading Series. The former features students and faculty from MSU Texas, and the latter brings in notable writers from across the country for campus events. He's also the faculty advisor forVoices,MSU Texas' award-winning arts and literature journal. And most reccently, he has founded a new online arts and literature journal,1922 Review.Additionally, John is the editor ofWriting Texas,the journal produced by the Texas Association of Creative Writers, andJASAT,the academic journal of the American Studies Association of Texas.

John earned his PhD in English from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Memphis, and his Bachelor’s from the University of New Orleans. He currently lives in Wichita Falls, Texas, with his beautiful wife Rajean, their two daughters, and a super fluffy Great Pyrenees named Anna.