SHATTUCK, Sim 1950-

PERSONAL:

Surname is accented on first syllable; born June 22, 1950, in Decatur, GA; son of Sim, Sr., and Elizabeth (Mengis) Shattuck. Ethnicity: "English/German." Education: George Mason University, B.A. (Spanish), 1972; Northeast Louisiana University, B.A. (general studies), 1974, M.A., 1976; University of Southern Mississippi, Ph.D., 1997. Politics: Liberal Democrat. Religion: "Agnostic." Hobbies and other interests: "Fugue-writing," reading, maintaining his second home, "keeping up with family."

ADDRESSES:

Home—520 Finks, Hideaway Rd., No. 44, Monroe, LA 71203. Office—Department of English, Louisiana Tech University, Box 3162 TS, Ruston, LA 71272.

CAREER:

Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, LA, instructor, 1976-78; Human Sciences Research, McLean, VA, research associate, 1978-79; Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, LA, instructor in English, 1980-82; Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, assistant professor of English, 1983—. Krewe of Janus, lieutenant, 1998-2002.

MEMBER:

United Federation of College Teachers, South Central Modern Language Association, Mississippi Philological Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Linwood Orange Award for Early British Literature, c. 1996.

WRITINGS:

Pleasant Hurricanes (comic novel), Dream Catcher Publishing (Atlanta, GA), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Krewe of Hecate, a "seriocomic novel."

SIDELIGHTS:

Sim Shattuck told CA: "Several matters about fiction interest me. First in importance is trying to understand the mystery of personality, finding out (or at least exploring) why people act the ways they do. Second, I like putting incongruent people and places together, both to capture a sense of place and to see the interaction between character and place. Third, I like to write about how our inner world reacts with the outer one, and though the inner has more immediacy, it has the least claim to reality. Fourth, I like to examine the question whether a spiritual life is a real response to the unseen or a self-perpetuating self-deception. Last, space sciences, botany, paleontology, and archaeology continually appear in my writing, and I have lifelong interests in them."