Once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night, I was born. My father's family name being Abrams, and my christian name David....Call me Grouch.
I spent my youth in Wyoming (raised in the shadow of the Tetons), then met the woman of my dreams, married, settled down and raised a lovely family. Along the way, I earned a B.A. in English from the University of Oregon. For a couple of years, I was a reporter for newspapers in Montana. In 1988, I joined the Army as a journalist. This has taken me to such far-flung exotic places as Japan, Thailand, the Comoros Islands and El Paso, Texas. In my spare, non-epinion moments, I write fiction. My work has been published in Esquire, Glimmer Train Stories, The Readerville Journal, Greensboro Review and Fish Stories, among others. An essay on fishing in Alaska appears in Alaska Passages, published by Sasquatch Books. One of my short stories was listed as one of the "100 Other Distinguished Stories of 1998" in the anthology The Best American Short Stories, 1999 edited by Amy Tan.
Update (Jan. 25, 2002): Most of my new reviews of books and movies can now be found at Culture Dose.
Update (July 5, 2002): I recently had the chance to interview novelist Allen Morris Jones (Last Year's River). You can read that interview, published at Drexel Online Journal, by clicking here:
Beyond the Familiar — An interview with Allen Morris Jones.
Update (June 29, 2003): I won first place in the Anchorage Daily News' annual writing contest ("Open to the Public, Non-fiction" category) for my essay Ursus Arctos Horribilis. You can read it by clicking here:
Ursus Arctos Horribilis
Update (July 5, 2003): I recently had the chance to interview Terry Parssinen, author of The Oster Conspiracy (read my Epinions review of the book). You can read that interview by clicking here.
Updated (May 15, 2004): After 12 long years of off-again, on-again study at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, I finally earned my Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. I'd like to publicly thank Frank Soos and Jo-Ann Mapson, both of them enthusiastic supporters of my work and efforts.
Updated (June 16, 2004): A poem of mine, On Becoming a Jesuit, took first place in the annual Anchorage Daily News contest.
I am now a war veteran, having served 11 months in Kuwait and Baghdad during Operation Iraq Freedom III. While deployed, I took a hiatus from reviewing.
Updated (April 1, 2007): AbeBooks.com recently included me in a feature about "Reading in Iraq." You can read all about it here
Updated (Feb. 5, 2009): After 20 years and 20 days of service, I retired from active duty with the Army last October. I am now embarked on my second federal career as a Public Affairs Specialist with the Bureau of Land Managment in Montana.
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