Finalist, 2019 Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction
Kevin McIntosh came of age in Oak Park, Illinois, hometown of Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway. As a youth he delivered The Chicago American to the old Hemingway house and attended the same high school as Ernie, though not, he would later assure his students, at the same time. Like many before him, he was seduced by Papa H’s lean, masculine prose, which led to the scrutiny of other Midwestern masters: Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Cather, Dreiser. These literary forebears would impress upon him the importance of place, how it shapes voice and character, of finding the universal in the particular.
After a young manhood spent as playwright, waiter, singing telegram deliverer, and a brief, regrettable detour through the land of asbestos litigation, Kevin became a teacher. His thirty-year career has spanned both coasts, all races, religions, income levels. He has found surprising success teaching writing to the toughest age group––8th grade––leading one boy in Oakland to theorize that his seemingly bright, amazingly pale teacher was part of an obscure witness protection program. And everywhere he taught, Kevin was struck by the “savage inequalities” in American education; intelligence and creativity were as abundant in the city as the suburb, but oh the disparities. Someday, he thought, I’ll write a book about that.
Kevin’s short stories, many dealing with the teaching life, have appeared in the American Literary Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Chicago Tribune, Jabberwock Review, Potomac Review, and elsewhere. Stories conceived during residencies at Ragdale and Blue Mountain Center were nominated for Best New American Voices and the Pushcart Prize. By George!, Kevin’s musical biography of the Gershwin brothers, was produced at his alma mater, Carleton College, and given a staged reading at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. He continues to write and teach writing in Greater Boston.
Regal House Publishing is proud to publish Class Dismissed, a finalist in the 2019 Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction.
