5 Things You Didn't Know About Sean Ennis

1. His story 'Going After Lovely', which opens Chase Us, was originally published in Best New American Voices, edited by Jane Smiley. When reviewing the collection, Kirkus said that "Impressive craftsmanship and high imaginative quality distinguish an annual that’s becoming an essential."

2. The gravel soccer field the boys play on in the story 'Saint Kevin of Fox Chase' is based on an actual soccer field, complete with gravel, broken glass and a necessarily thuggish opposition that Ennis played on in his younger years. In real life, as in fiction, his team was no match for their tougher inner-city counterparts.

3. He studied his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi under Barry Hannah, and alongside Milton O'Neal (M.O) Walsh, whose debut novel, My Sunshine Away, has a tentative release date of January, 2015.  

4. In addition to writing his own work, he also teaches writing and literature at the University of Mississippi and with the Gotham Writers Workshop. I was lucky enough to study under him during the Zoetrope: All Story Advanced Fiction Workshop (an extension program offered by the GWW) in 2012, and he reinvigorated my passion in the form, and the willingness to stick at and with particularly challenging stories.

5. He not only wrote Chase Us, he also created a killer music playlist to accompany the book over at Large Hearted Boy, including songs by Ghostface Killah, Otis Redding, and James Blake.

Sean Ennis is a Philadelphia, PA native, now living in Water Valley, MS. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Mississippi and with the Gotham Writers Workshop. His work has appeared in Tin House, Crazyhorse, The Good Men Project, The Greensboro Review, The Mississippi Review, Hot Metal Bridge, LitNImage, Filter, and The Best New American Voices anthology. Chase Us is his first book: you can read story extracts at The Good Men Project and Fifty-Two Stories.