Jeff Vande ZandeJeff Vande Zande began to write as a poet in reaction to his

father who was a fiction writer. �It was a rebellion of sorts,� he says.

Some of his poems were nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and one of

them was selected to appear in Ted Koosr�s syndicated newspaper

column, American Life in Poetry. His poems from chapbooks were

eventually collected in a book, Poems New, Used, and Rebuilds (March

Street Press). Vande Zande began writing short stories seriously in

1997 and focused more on his fiction after that. �More and more,

the world came to me as stories rather than poems,� he says. Bottom

Dog Press has published his Emergency Stopping and Other Stories (2004)

and his novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures (2009). Additionally,

he has published a novella collected with five stories, Threatened Species

(Whistling Shade Press, 2010). The author has taught for the last ten

years at Delta College, a community college in Michigan that serves

the cities of Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw. American Poet comes out

of his experience as a poet, as a teacher, and as a transplanted advocate

of Saginaw, declaring it, �a city with a rich history that includes

struggle, but also the seeds of its rebirth.� Read More Read Less