I grew up in Salt Lake City and hold an MFA from the University of Arizona. I now live in Edmonton, Alberta with my wife, archaeologist Maggie Spivey-Faulkner, our daughter, and fluffy cat Herschel. When I’m not writing fiction, I teach literature and creative writing at the University of Alberta, where I was awarded the 2020 Cécile E. Mactaggart Travel Award for Narrative Writing.

My short story “Stumblecookies” won the 2018 League of Utah Writers fiction contest for new writers. I’m hard at work on my first novel, Whisper Six Feet Down, about the Harlan-Bell County, Ky. coal mining strikes of 1931. In between, I play traditional Kentucky banjo and fiddle.