Richard Seltzer lives in Milford, CT, where he writes fiction, poetry, and essays full-time. He graduated from Yale and earned an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. At Yale, he studied creative writing with Robert Penn Warren and Joseph Heller. During his professional career, he edited and wrote for technical trade magazines at Benwill Publishing, then worked as a writer and internet evangelist for DEC, the minicomputer company.
His published books include: Parallel Lives, Beyond the 4th Door, Nevermind, Breeze, Shakespeare's Twin Sister, To Gether Tales, and Echoes from the Attic (from All Things That Matter Press); Grandad Jokes, Why Knot?, The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories, We All Are Shakespeare, and We First Met in Ithaca or Was It Eden? (from Booklocker); The Name of Hero (historical novel, Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin), Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes (translation from Russian, Red Sea Press), and pioneering books about Internet business.
His published books include: Parallel Lives, Beyond the 4th Door, Nevermind, Breeze, Shakespeare's Twin Sister, To Gether Tales, and Echoes from the Attic (from All Things That Matter Press); Grandad Jokes, Why Knot?, The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories, We All Are Shakespeare, and We First Met in Ithaca or Was It Eden? (from Booklocker); The Name of Hero (historical novel, Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin), Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes (translation from Russian, Red Sea Press), and pioneering books about Internet business.
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AltaVista Search Revolution won the Distinguished Technical Communication Award, the highest award given by the Society for Technical Communication Publications. According to Library Journal, "This complete guide to using the AltaVista web searching/indexing system will be indispensable to both librarians and patrons.... Get one copy to circulate, nail one down in the computer lab, and pass one around the reference desk."
His translation, Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes (2000) was called "the most important book on the history of eastern Africa to have been published for a century" by the journal Old Africa (Nairobi, 2008). 2022 CT Press Club—Why Knot? third place in General Non-fiction, Grandad Jokes honorable mention in Humor. 2020 CT Press Club—Parallel Lives honorable mention in novels. |
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Interview with Richard Seltzer
about his story "The Second Tortoise"
Bronze Winner in The Scribes Prize
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What inspired this piece?
Just having fun, thinking of the tortoise and the hare, Zeno's paradox about Achilles and the tortoise, and the ironic bit of trivia that the tragic dramatist Aeschylus died from being hit on the head by a tortoise that an eagle dropped, expecting its shell to be cracked on a rock.
What's next on the horizon for you?
I recently finished a novel entitled Sing Their Wrath, set in the Trojan War. And I am now returning to a story I began over 50 years ago, the first piece of which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1982. That historical novel was entitled The Name of Hero and was intended to be the first of a trilogy. The rights have reverted to me, so I'm rewriting that book. (I think I've learned a bit about novel writing in the interim and can do a better job of it now). And I intend to include the other two pieces with it in a single 1000-page book. Having fun immersing myself in the life of Alexander Bulatovich, 1870-1919 in Russia, Ethiopia, Manchuria, Mount Athos, WWI, and Ukraine. Also, Red Sea Press will soon be publishing a second edition of my translation of Bulatovich's books about his experiences in Ethiopia--Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes.
Who are some authors that inspire you?
Homer, Dickens, Dostoevsky.
Just having fun, thinking of the tortoise and the hare, Zeno's paradox about Achilles and the tortoise, and the ironic bit of trivia that the tragic dramatist Aeschylus died from being hit on the head by a tortoise that an eagle dropped, expecting its shell to be cracked on a rock.
What's next on the horizon for you?
I recently finished a novel entitled Sing Their Wrath, set in the Trojan War. And I am now returning to a story I began over 50 years ago, the first piece of which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1982. That historical novel was entitled The Name of Hero and was intended to be the first of a trilogy. The rights have reverted to me, so I'm rewriting that book. (I think I've learned a bit about novel writing in the interim and can do a better job of it now). And I intend to include the other two pieces with it in a single 1000-page book. Having fun immersing myself in the life of Alexander Bulatovich, 1870-1919 in Russia, Ethiopia, Manchuria, Mount Athos, WWI, and Ukraine. Also, Red Sea Press will soon be publishing a second edition of my translation of Bulatovich's books about his experiences in Ethiopia--Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes.
Who are some authors that inspire you?
Homer, Dickens, Dostoevsky.