Raised in the farm country and river towns of southeastern Minnesota, Kevin Fenton is the author of Merit Badges (AWP Prize for the Novel) and Leaving Rollingstone. His work has appeared in Ploughshares and the Gettysburg Review. He got a slightly better education than he deserved at Beloit College, the University of Minnesota Law School, and the University of Minnesota MFA program. Fenton has taught Intro to Fiction and Seven Essential Skills for Fiction at the Loft Literary Center and “How to Start a Story” at University of Minnesota creative writing classes. He has published essays in Émigré and Eye (London) and contributed to the anthology Looking Closer 2: Critical Writing On Graphic Design. Fenton lives in Saint Paul with his wife Ellen and his greyhound Violet.