Feature Story

August 5, 2016 | By Cole Hatcher

‘Award-Winning Talent for Crafting Creepy Tales’

Ohio Wesleyan Faculty Member Earns Accolades for New Book

The cover of his new book includes praise from iconic author Joyce Carol Oates, who proclaims, “Jeffrey Ford is a beautifully disorienting writer, a poet in an unclassifiable genre – his own.”

Jeffrey Ford's fifth collection of short stories was released in July. He also has written eight novels.

Ford, a part-time instructor in English at Ohio Wesleyan University, is the author of eight novels and five short-story collections including the just-released “A Natural History of Hell.” During his career, Ford has earned World Fantasy, Nebula, Edgar Allan Poe, and Shirley Jackson awards for his writing.

Of his latest work, Booklist notes (in a starred review): “In this collection of 13 stories, Ford showcases his award-winning talent for crafting creepy tales that bend the world as we know it in unexpected ways. … [A]ll employ a dark and uneasy atmosphere, quirky characters, and thought-provoking endings, with delightfully unsettling results.”

And in an NPR book review written by Hugo Award-winning editor and author Jason Heller, Ford is described as “one of the most reliably enthralling short-story writers in speculative fiction” whose work “has always teased the uncanny out of everyday existence, be it in this world or another.” Read Heller’s complete review, “Darkness and Magic Abound in 'Natural History of Hell.”