Paul Shepherd is former Writer in Residence and Kingsbury Fellow at Florida State University, where he earned a PhD with distinction.  He attended the University of Virginia, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UNC-Greensboro.  His work has appeared in Crazyhorse, Fiction, Omni, Prairie Schooner, William and Mary Review, Folio, Pacific Review, US Catholic, St. Anthony Messenger, Portland Review, the Quarterly, Beloit Fiction, Maryland Review, and elsewhere.  He has served as Senior Editor of International Quarterly, and as faculty advisor to award-winning college newspapers and literary magazines.

Paul has taught college classes in creative writing, magazine and newspaper writing, and modern literature.  He speaks on a variety of topics (see details on the "reading tour" page).

More Like Not Running Away was a finalist for the Associated Writing Programs Award in the the Novel, the Bakeless Prize, the Gardner Award, and twice for the James Jones prizes.

His next novel, Why Things Are the Way They Are, as well as a book of poetry and a memoir, are currently in submission.   

He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, Lois Shepherd, who is Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia. She is the author of If That Ever Happens to Me:  Making Life and Death Decisions after Terri Schiavo.  They have three children, Max, Summer, and Charlie.