Ben Fountain quit his position with a Dallas law firm in 1988, after only a few years of practice, to write fiction full-time. His stories, which have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review, and other periodicals, have garnered O. Henry Awards and Pushcart Prizes. His reportage from post-earthquake Haiti was broadcast on NPR’s This American Life. His collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories, appeared in 2006, and earned for Fountain the PEN/Hemingway Award, a Whiting Writers Award, and a Barnes and Noble Discover Award for Fiction. In 2012, his debut novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, was published and received the National Book Critics Circle Award. He and his family live in Dallas.

Ben's new book Beautiful Country Burn Again was released September 25, 2018.