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K.J. Stevens

Thanks to General Motors, the mighty Chevelle Super Sport and some back-seat lovin'. I was born in June of 1973 in Alpena, Michigan. My Mom was 17. My Dad was 21. They were in love and still are as far as anyone can tell. They've been together for 35 years. Married for 32. It amazes me how much they've worked through, how much they've shared, and how much more they plan on doing.

I write about relationships and family. I write about Love and the Everyday. While detailing the surface and putting it under the best light I can so that readers can see it, I also work methodically behind the scenes. Down deep, under the surface there is always much going on. At least, that's what I've come to believe. I don't know if it's a god, a force, or Nature's will. I do know that whatever It is it's inside of me, inside of all of us, and I think the world would be a better place if people would take the chances they are given and explore.

I haven't explored as much as I can, but I've done my best while coming to grips with space and time, with loss and love, with recognizing my relationship to the intricacies of life. I have lived in Alpena for most of my life. Attended a rural, country-bumpkin school called Maple Ridge Elementary. We played a lot of kickball, were experts at playing marbles, and had rough-and-tumble football games. Boys and girls, alike. In between recesses, we learned a lot, or at least enough to get by. Enough to get into Thunder Bay Junior High then Alpena High School. After that, it was an open field. A new beginning. Some of us went to college, some of us went to work, some of us are wandering the streets drunk, some of us are living in the hills surviving off the land in cabins and huts. All of us, I'm sure, are learning that life is not what it seems. We didn't learn the truth in school. We learned what we needed to in order to get the grades.

My grades were all right. I attended Alpena Community College, Central Michigan University, and Hamline University. I got degrees from two out of three. I don't really care much about that. What I care about is that I experienced some great things while at these schools. In particular, my passion for writing, for living the writing life was sparked up and set aflame. I met good people, had good teachers, and learned that darkness and the unknown is often the best light of the day. I thank Seaton, Thompson, Keenan, Phillips and Bray. I thank O'Connor, Salinger, and Hemingway.

I read as much as I need to, which is probably more than most people. I don't remember everything I read, I don't quote books much, and I don't like to use other people's ideas as my own. I'm strong-willed, yet creative and open to whatever it is you have to say, but people are as frustrating as they are intriguing, so forgive me if I sometimes walk away. Usually it's because my head's full up, I am feeling something moving deep, and I got to get to a place where I can be by myself, because sooner or later I fall hard or rise gloriously and I need to breathe, to think, and write It down.

I've written five books. One bad book of poetry, and four short story collections. Some of them could have used more editing, but most of them are very good. I'm not saying this because I'm an arrogant prick (although I've been called this). I'm saying it because I'm confident in what I do. I'm a good writer and I will write until the day I die. Most days, I'm sure about this writing life, but there are times when the bills are piling up, when I can't afford gas for my truck, when I'm eating leftovers for days, and I wonder if the struggle would have been this hard had I chosen the path of an Engineering degree.

But then I remember...Life is not about degrees, status, money, and living like a phony. Life is about Love and creating, and doing the best you can to know yourself and the relationship you have to the world around you.

And in all of It, this is me, and this is what I do.

A more scandalous biography is available. It is much more intimate and frightening, a bit brutal, but true, and it is evident in everything I write, and at times it includes you.

best,

~ k.j.

writer in a chook!

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