Ron Tanner

Life

Tanner grew up in North Carolina but also lived in New Jersey and the Marshall Islands. In his twenties he was a professional musician, playing drums in California. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1986, where he was recruited to participate in the influential “20 Under 30” anthology, which included Ann Patchett, Lorrie Moore, and David Leavitt. Tanner won a post-graduate James Michener fellowship from the Copernicus Society, then went on to earn a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1989, where he was one of four University Fellows.

Tanner joined the writing faculty of Loyola University-Maryland in 1991 and served as writing department chair for three terms. From 2005-10, Tanner served as a board member and a two-term president of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Currently, he lives with his wife in Baltimore, Maryland.

Writing

Tanner’s books are the novel Missile Paradise (2016); the memoir From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story (2012); a novel, Kiss Me, Stranger (2011); a chapbook, Wheels (2009); and a book of short stories, A Bed of Nails (2003). His stories and essays have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, Literary Review, Story Quarterly, West Branch, and many others. Tanner currently serves as contributing editor to Defunct magazine, West Branch, and the Pushcart Press.

Missile Paradise, a novel set in the Marshall Islands, including the American missile base on Kwajalein, tells the story of 4 main characters, both American and Marshallese. As of March 2016, the novel is garnering highly positive press and reviews. Kirkus praised the book, stating "The themes here are major—global warming, imperialism, America’s role in the world (the story is set soon after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal). But Tanner displays a light touch, favoring snappy dialogue over didacticism. The result is winning."

Awards

Tanner’s awards include the G.S. Chandra Prize and Towson Prize in Literature for A Bed of Nails, a Pushcart Prize for fiction, Gertrude Press chapbook prize for fiction, First Prize in Fiction from New Letters, the Charles Angoff Prize for fiction, the Jack Dyer Award for Fiction, the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Gold Medal for the short story, Best of the Web award, Story South's Million Writers Award, Best of the West award, a Maryland Arts grant (twice), and numerous fellowships, including a James Michener Copernicus Society Fellowship and a Walter Dakin Fellowship (Sewanee Writers' Conference), as well as many residency fellowships (e.g., Ledig House, Yaddo, Millay Colony, and others). In 2014, Tanner was awarded the Nachbahr Award for outstanding achievement in the humanities at Loyola University.

The Marshall Islands Story Project

In 2008, Tanner was awarded a grant by the National Park Service to collect, translate, and preserve the oral stories of Marshallese elders in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The project set a standard in the Pacific region for teaching students community engagement and communication skills. Translation of the oral stories was completed in 2014 and they are available at www.mistories.org.

Preservation America Project

The popularity of From Animal House to Our House involved Tanner with historic societies and architectural preservation groups on a national scale and, in 2013, led to his directorship of the Preservation America Project (http://preservationamerica.org), an online archive that video-documents the preservation of historic buildings and houses in the U.S. The project is ongoing, will result in a book about Americans who preserve and restore historic homes and buildings, and aims to encourage “greater public awareness of local, regional, and national preservation initiatives.”

Good Contrivance Farm, Inc.

In 2016, Tanner and his wife incorporated their historic farm outside Baltimore, MD as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to its preservation. They plan, beginning in 2017, to offer writer residencies at the farm.