Murray Dunlap's work has appeared in about fifty magazines and journals.
His stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, as
well as to Best New American Voices once, and his first book, -an early draft of "Bastard Blue" (then called "Alabama")
was a finalist for the Maurice Prize in Fiction. His first
collection of short stories, "Bastard Blue," was published on June 7th, 2011 (the three year anniversary of a car wreck
that very nearly killed him...). The extraordinary individuals Pam
Houston, Laura Dave, Michael Knight, and Fred Ashe taught him the art of writing.
About this website: I was very nearly killed on 6-7-08 in a car
wreck, so I'm trying very hard to put my life back together. I spent 3 months
in a coma followed by a year in a wheelchair and six months using a
walker. But worse, a traumatic brain injury is a complex
injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. The impact on a
person and his or her family can be devastating. And my memory-loss has to
be the most frustrating component of this entire disaster. It is as
if I woke up from a dream of a life to a nightmare of a reality. But, as
we all do, I keep focused and build a new life... AND having met Lori, the love of
my life, and planning to marry her this year (2013), my life is dreamlike again.
“Forged with a poet’s attention to
cadence and rhythm, a storyteller’s devotion to character, and tension that
just keeps ratcheting up, Bastard Blue is finally a love story, between a young
man and the place that made him, the southern culture that proves to be both a
blessing and a curse. Murray Dunlap is a brave writer, and an honest one; the
lives he portrays here are as heart-stoppingly authentic as his prose is
dazzlingly beautiful. He serves up everything I want in a story: compassion,
humor, substance and style.”
Pam Houston, author of Cowboys
Are My Weakness
"Yes, Bastard Blue is a first
book but there’s more than promise on display within its pages. This collection
introduces us to a fully realized talent. Murray Dunlap’s voice is confident,
his characters richly drawn, his sense of place as vivid as you will find in
fiction. Sentence for sentence his prose is crisp and direct, edged somehow
with both menace and hope. He has a knack for creeping up to sentiment in his
stories without crossing the line, leaving only genuine, well-earned emotion on
the page. This book is so fine somebody should offer a money back
guarantee."
Michael Knight, author of The
Typist
"If possible, read Murray Dunlap’s Bastard Blue in a Louis XV
style chair, near a subtle fire, or in an Adirondack chair, between peach and
dogwood trees. Reading his stories is about as close to having a
storyteller there—present, in the room--as I know. This collection
is full of heart, mischief, and sly winks. What a grand
triumph."
George Singleton, author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie
"We can choose to look at
Murray as the poor writer who suffered a traumatic brain injury. We can choose
to look at him as someone who lost the kind of life it could kill a person to
lose. Or we can choose to look at him as a writer who went through some shit
and now has another story to tell."
Kristen Tsetsi, author of Pretty
Much True
The Survivor Tree Oklahoma City National Memorial
Mira Bartok, author of The Memory Palace, says, and I agree
wholeheartedly: “I accept that this is who I am. I’m not going to be the person
I was before. I’m here now and this is how I am now. What am I going to do, not
make art? I’d rather jump off a bridge.”
“From the gutter-most to the uttermost, it's awe inspiring and makes it
easy for me to come in to work everyday,” says President of Personal
Edge Fitness, Garrett Williamson. Murray had to re-learn to walk at Personal Edge... -even after his wheelchair, a walker was required for balance. But these days, he goes to the gym daily and is re-teaching his battered body to jog.
