Rodes Fishburne

Rodes Fishburne is the author of the best-selling novel Going to See the Elephant, chosen by both Independent bookstores and Amazon.com as one of the best novels of 2009. He has been praised by Tom Wolfe and compared to Tom Robbins.

For over ten years he has written for magazines and newspapers, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and Forbes ASAP, where he was the editor of the “Big Issue,” an annual magazine of literary essays from leading writers and thinkers. Contributors included: Tom Wolfe, Bill Gates, Kurt Vonnegut, Muhammad Ali, Mark Helprin, John Updike, Elmore Leonard, E.O. Wilson, George Plimpton and the Dalai Lama.

“Big Issue” essays have been included in the popular anthologies, “Best American Essays,” and “Best American Science Essays” and nominated for a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. He edited and wrote introductory essays for the book, The Best of the Big Issues.

The Drilling Company in New York City has performed his one-act plays, “Note to Self,” “Gaggle” and “Waiting for Henry to Snow” at the West 78th Street Theatre. He was commissioned by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to write a play addressing timely scientific themes, called “Eternity: A play in 30 minutes.”

A lifelong angler, he worked for five seasons as a fly-fishing guide in Alaska. While living in a remote tent camp on the Upper Nushagak River, a severe storm with 90 mile per hour winds stranded him alone for 21 days, during this time he lost 17 pounds and read War and Peace twice.

A native of Virginia and a graduate of Emory & Henry College, he attended St. Peter’s College, Oxford, where he studied Religion and Irish Literature.

He’s a member of the Grotto, a collective of professional writers and has literary representation with Fredrica S. Friedman and film representation with Rabineau Wachter & Sanford. He lives with his family San Francisco.