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Jeff Fearnside

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.Jeff-Fearnside.com

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Influences

Adalet Ağaoğlu, Ray Bradbury, Kate Chopin, E. E. Cummings, Gretel ...more

Member Since

December 2014

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Jeff Fearnside’s short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in dozens of literary journals and anthologies, most recently About Place Journal, Naugatuck River Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine, Valparaiso Fiction Review, and Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest (University of Washington Press, 2016). His writing has been nominated for Best New American Voices and three times for a Pushcart Prize.

His book Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air, and Other Stories of Flight (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2016), which was a finalist for the New Rivers Press MVP Award and for the Permafrost Book Prize in Fiction, is a collection of 13 short stories set in the Jeff Fearnside’s short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in dozens of literary journals and anthologies, most recently About Place Journal, Naugatuck River Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine, Valparaiso Fiction Review, and Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest (University of Washington Press, 2016). His writing has been nominated for Best New American Voices and three times for a Pushcart Prize.

His book Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air, and Other Stories of Flight (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2016), which was a finalist for the New Rivers Press MVP Award and for the Permafrost Book Prize in Fiction, is a collection of 13 short stories set in the contrasting American Midwest and West and linked thematically by the recurring idea of flight, in its various definitions and senses. It has been called “rich in so many ways: in its deep explorations of diverse lives and experiences; in its immersion in place, which often becomes a character itself…” (Small Press Picks).

Another reviewer notes, “Jeff Fearnside is a very talented writer who explores deep vicissitudes of human relationships and our connection to nature” (Peace Corps Writers).

Ideas of place, culture, and the natural environment deeply inform his writing and teaching. He lived and worked in Central Asia for four years, first as a university instructor through the U.S. Peace Corps and later as manager of the Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He has traveled widely along the Silk Road in Asia, throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and in more than 40 U.S. states.

Awards for his work include a Grand Prize in the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Program and the Mary Mackey Short Story Prize, as well as five writing fellowships, including residencies at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest and the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, and a 2015 Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission.

Fearnside earned degrees in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University (BFA) and Eastern Washington University (MFA), and has taught writing and literature at the Academy of Languages in Kazakhstan, Washington State University, Western Kentucky University, and Prescott College. He now lives with his wife Val and their two cats in Corvallis, where he teaches at Oregon State University and is at work on a novel. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

Who is your favorite fictional couple, and why?

Jeff Fearnside Terrific question! The answer that most strongly comes to mind is from a book I first read in graduate school, which was also my first introduction to…moreTerrific question! The answer that most strongly comes to mind is from a book I first read in graduate school, which was also my first introduction to this author. Her influence on me may not be overtly evident, but I admire her strong plotlines, good use of humor, and highly believable characters. My favorite fictional couple is Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley in EMMA by Jane Austen.

What I like most about them is the growth we see in them over the course of the novel. Many dynamic characters in literature, especially lovers, often exhibit change in a downward arc. I’m all for a good dramatic tragedy, but that isn’t all there is to life! In EMMA, we have two characters who work through their own issues of stubbornness and a self-satisfied sense that they each are solely in the right. While it may appear that Miss Woodhouse has the most to learn, I can’t help feeling that Mr. Knightley’s name is used somewhat tongue-in-cheek. After all, he has to come down off his high horse, so to speak, to finally see that Emma is no longer a child in need of guidance but rather a woman capable of running her own household.

It’s refreshing to see how Austen breaks away from the well-worn “love at first sight” storyline to build a romance slowly, incrementally between Miss Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley so that we as readers understand what’s happening to them even before they do. It would never work if only one of them moved toward the other. They each take their own small, stumbling steps to meet in the middle and discover that their friendship has grown, through both trials and a building of mutual respect born directly out of those trials, into love. Sure, it’s the kind of happy ending that a serious literary writer would have a hard time pulling off today, in our much more cynical times, but I personally feel the story remains as realistic now as ever. Technically, its pacing is perfect, and even with a conclusion foregone fairly early in the novel, the twists and turns of plot never fail to surprise. Austen makes us care for these characters, and that’s exactly what made me fall in love with books in the first place.(less)

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Hi,Jeff, I'm delighted to be back in touch with you and see that you've done so well, how are you?

Jeff Fearnside Mary, it's wonderful to hear from you! Val and I think of you every time we make that wonderful beet salad we first ate in San Francisco with…moreMary, it's wonderful to hear from you! Val and I think of you every time we make that wonderful beet salad we first ate in San Francisco with you--it's one of our favorites. We are well, and my new book is off to a good start. I just had a reading in Eugene with some fantastic writers, and I have several more readings lined up. How about you? I'm sure you have something interesting in the works!(less)

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Jeff Fearnside’s books

Average rating: 4.4 · 98 ratings · 28 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air: and Other Stories 4.44 avg rating — 9 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Life Inspired: Tales of Peace Corps Service by Jeff Fearnside (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Barbara Arrington (Contributor) , Patrick Burns (Contributor) 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays by Tara Lynn Masih (Goodreads Author), Simmons B. Buntin (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) , Li Miao Lovett (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.50 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet by Clifford Garstang (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Brandy Abraham (Contributor) , Jay Kauffmann (Contributor) 4.56 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scent of Cedars: Promising Writers of the Pacific Northwest by Anne Schroeder (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jeff Fearnside (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) , Anita Crocus (Contributor) 3.33 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2002	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos and Sourcebook for Creative Writing by Rita Banerjee (Goodreads Author) (Editor/Contributor), Diana Norma Szokolyai (Editor/Contributor) , Kazim Ali (Contributor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2018	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Jeff Fearnside is now friends with Mark
Nov 09, 2019 05:59AM · like
Jeff Fearnside answered Goodreads's question: What’s your advice for aspiring writers? I believe the best answer to this question can be given in four words: Believe in yourself. Work.
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Jeff Fearnside rated a book it was amazing Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest by Nathaniel Brodie	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Jeff Fearnside wants to read Our Dreams Might Align by Dana Diehl (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Jeff Fearnside is now following Dana Diehl Author of Our Dreams Might Align
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Jun 23, 2016 02:22PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air by Jeff Fearnside. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air by Jeff Fearnside <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Apr 07, 2016 09:06AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air by Jeff Fearnside. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air by Jeff Fearnside <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">