Steve Wiegenstein is the author of five books, most recently Land of Joys, a historical novel that takes place at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and in the fictional Ozarks village of Daybreak. His short story collection Scattered Lights was a finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction. He has written three earlier historical novels, also set in Daybreak: The Language of Trees, This Old World, and Slant of Light. Steve grew up in the Missouri Ozarks and worked there as a newspaper reporter before entering the field of higher education. He taught journalism, English, and communication for a number of colleges and universities during his career, but is now retired from teaching and writes full-time. He writes and blogs about rural and Ozarks issues at stevewiegenstein.wordpress.com. The son of a rural librarian, he received the Missouri Author Award from the Missouri Library Association in 2022.