Dr. Heller is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He grew up on a small acreage in the wheat country around Yukon, Oklahoma, where many of his fictions take place. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing and English from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and his Ed.D. in English Education from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

Heller is best known for his novel The Automotive History of Lucky Kellerman, originally published by Chelsea Green and subsequently reprinted by Anchor/Doubleday. Lucky Kellerman was a selection of both Book-of-the-Month Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club. Lucky Kellerman also received the Friends of American Writers First Prize Award for the best published book of fiction or nonfiction related to the Midwest.

Heller's second novel, Father's Mechanical Universe, was published in 2001 by BkMk Press. Novelist Brent Spencer calls Universe "a touching, elegiac book that races with 120-octane insight." According to W. D. Wetherell, Father's Mechanical Universe combines the sharp, concentrated focus of a novel with the tender, lyrical quality of the best memoirs to create one of the most moving accounts of family love I've read in years."

Heller's short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and national anthologies, and twice have received O. Henry Awards. He has also received an Individual Fellowship Grant in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts. Many of Heller's stories have been set in Hawaii, where he has lived for several extended periods, including the spring and summer of 1995 when he served as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hawaii. His first collection, The Man Who Drank a Thousand Beers (Chariton Review Press), has been called "a Hawaiian Winesburg, Ohio." Hawaii is also the focus of his most recent fictions, including stories in Nebraska Review, Bamboo Ridge, South Dakota Review, Spirit of Aloha, and A.I.M.: America's Intercultural Magazine. Heller's nonfiction has appeared in such publications as Manoa, Fourth Genre, Flint Hills Review, and In Brief, from W. W. Norton. He is currently finishing his first book of nonfiction, called Walking Through the Moon: A Family Memoir.

Heller has also made his mark as an editor, helping establish two national literary journals: Hawaii Review, which recently published its 25th anniversary issue, and Mid-American Review, which he conceived and designed in 1980. He has since served on the staffs of Kansas Quarterly and Laurel Review.

Heller began his teaching career as an English instructor at Ponca City High School in Oklahoma. In 1990 he received the Kansas Literary Artists Fellowship in Fiction and in 1996 the Kansas Governor's Arts Award, the state's highest literary honor. During the latter year he spent the summer on the Hawaiian island of Lanai conducting interviews and other research related to his latest book project: a narrative history of Lanai called Private Island. Heller has given numerous readings, lectures, and workshops at universities and other forums, from Hawaii to England.

Steve comes to us with a distinguished history as teacher, administrator, and writer, and we're very excited about his future leadership. Novelist Jonis Agee calls Steve "an authentic American voice who teaches us about the human heart, haunted by misdeeds, mysteries, and longing."

Steve Heller's Teaching Statement (PDF)