Allen Learst

Allen Learst grew up believing he was destined to work for the auto industry, and when he was eighteen, took a job at the Chrysler Tank Plant; and later, after Vietnam, where he served as a combat infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division, he worked for the Ford Motor Company Interior Plant. Factory life, however, didn’t agree with him and he decided to take advantage of his G.I. Bill. He began his education at Macomb County Community College. He earned a BS and MA from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan and a PhD in Creative Writing from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he studied writing with Gordon Weaver, author of Count a Lonely Cadence. Before and during his college years he had more than twenty blue collar jobs. Before returning to school to complete his doctorate, Allen Learst worked at the Department of Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He has published in War, Literature and the Arts, Alaska Quarterly Review, Chattahoochee Review, Hawaii Review, Ascent, and The Literary Review. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin in Marinette, Wisconsin.