Johnny Payne is dramatist, novelist, scholar, and has been a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso [1] and Florida Atlantic University's Boca Raton campus. [2] He has been head of a Northwestern University creative writing program in Cusco, Peru. Payne has just accepted the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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Payne received his bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature at Indiana University and was awarded an MFA at the University of Alabama. He completed his PhD at Stanford University.
Payne conducted fieldwork in the Quechua highlands of Peru and has published two books from this research. Cuentos cusqueños is a dual language text, in both Quechua and Spanish, and gives stories told by several Quechua native speakers. She-Calf and Other Quechua Folk Tales is a translation of Quechua folktales into English.
Novels Payne, best known for his novel Kentuckiana, has been a relentless experimenter with form. Publisher's Weekly referred to him as a "master ventriloquist" (1991) based on his ability to imitate and integrate many forms and style into the weave of his multiform novels. Pastiche and parody, folklore and fables, black comedy and theatrical devices, and as well as postmodern self-consciousness are all used to tell stories that are essentially human parables.