MonticelloLive

A shocking discovery in the Ohio River, an 80-year-oild widow whose past is becoming more real than the present, and the same widow trying to learn to drive for the first time are the storylines for three short stories written by a University of Arkansas at Monticello faculty member and soon to be published in national and international online literary journals.

Dr. Mark Spencer, dean of the UAM School of Arts and Humanities, is the author of the short stories. “The River,” set in 1969, focuses on a young boy and his mother hoping to find closure in the mysterious decade-old disappearance of the boy’s father. “The River” will appear in the spring issue of Steel City Review, a national online literary journal published in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Spencer’s second story, “Time Traveler,” about an 80-year-old widow slipping into the past, will be published in the May issues of the online journals Storyglossia, and Avatar Review. His third story, “Love Hollow,” concerns the same elderly woman’s attempt to learn to drive for the first time in her life – no easy task in a 1964 Ford pick-up with a three-speed on the column. “Love Hollow” will be published in Amarillo Bay in February.

Spencer, who writes mostly mainstream fiction, published his first short stories in 1985. His most recent writings have been confined mostly to short stories and novellas, but he has published two novels – Love and Reruns in Adams County, and The Weary Motel.

Spencer came to UAM in June 2005. Previously, he was an English instructor at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) University, and chair of the Department of English and Foreign Languages at Cameron University in Edmond, Okla.