Dixon Hearne, Ph.D., teaches and lives in southern California. His writing, however, draws greatly from the rich images in his daily life growing up along the graceful river traces in West Monroe, Louisiana. After graduating from University of St. Thomas in Houston, he moved to Los Angeles, where he earned his M.A. in Education from Pepperdine University, and later a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. During his early career, he taught English to high school students, eventually gravitating toward the field of learning disabilities – hoping to help young readers acquire the skills to unlock doors to wonderful literature. Later, he moved to the university, where he has contributed a respectable body of research and writing to the field of Education.

Dixon wrote his first short story in 2001, which resulted in an Editors’ Choice award and encouragement to pursue fiction writing as a new hobby. Since that time, he has published over sixty short stories in magazines and literary journals, many of which have earned writing awards. A new collection of his short fiction – Plantatia: Hightone and Lowdown Stories of the South – is forthcoming from Southeast Missouri University Press (Spring 2009). Also forthcoming is new work in Christmas Traditions and Woodstock Revisited (Adams Media books) and Christmas is a Season (Fall 2008). He is presently at work editing a new anthology, Thanksgiving and Christmas: A Patchwork of Stories to be published Summer 2009.

Other work can be found in Mature Living, The Louisiana Review, Cream City Review, Roanoke Review, Louisiana Literature, Yellow Medicine Review, Wisconsin Review and recent anthologies, including Writing on Walls II, That Thing You Do, and Teacakes and Afternoon Tales: New Stories from Mississippi.