Chris Offutt

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Christopher John Offutt (born 24 August 1958 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American writer.

Offutt, the son of author Andrew J. Offutt, grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, a former mining community of 200 people in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky. He quit high school to join the army, but failed the physical. He attended Morehead State University and graduated with a degree in theater and a minor in art. He later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. In 1992, he published a short story collection, Kentucky Straight. His second book was the 1993 memoir The Same River Twice, and in 1997 he published his first novel, The Good Brother. In 1999, he published his second book of stories, Out of the Woods, followed in 2002 by No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home, about a six-month visit he made back to Rowan County.

His work has received awards from the Lannan Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Whiting Foundation. Offutt was also named one of the twenty best young American fiction writers by Granta.^[1] His non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Men's Journal, and Oxford American, and on National Public Radio.

His work is widely translated, and taught in high schools and colleges. His stories are included in many anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, and four appearances in New Stories of the South.

In 2005, Offutt wrote "Another Man's Escape" for Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist.

He played the role of Charlie in the 2002 film The Slaughter Rule starring Ryan Gosling and David Morse. He also starred in the Resist Evil Trilogy, a serial of 2008 horror/political thrillers shot in Iowa City, IA, alongside Fred Williamson, Tiffany Shepis, Edwin Neal, and Felissa Rose.

He has written two episodes of True Blood, an HBO series created by Alan Ball.^[2]

Offutt has been a visiting faculty member at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the University of Montana, the University of New Mexico, and Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.