Jack Butler’s Followers (10)

Jack Butler

Born

in Alligator, Mississippi, The United States

May 08, 1944

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Southern Fiction

Influences

Science fiction, the Bible

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From encyclopediaofarkansas.net:

Jack Armand Butler Jr. is a poet and novelist known for structurally experimental writing, usually dealing with the development of a religious self-awareness transcending orthodox views. His work is often sexually charged and humorous.

Jack Butler was born May 8, 1944, in Alligator, Mississippi, to Jack Butler, a Baptist preacher, and Dorothy Butler, a homemaker. He attended high school in Clinton, Mississippi. He was ordained a Baptist minister in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1965, and pastored the Bethlehem Baptist Church briefly in 1966. He received a BS in math and a BA in English from Central Missouri State College (now Central Missouri State University) in 1966. That year, he married Lynnice McDonald, with whom From encyclopediaofarkansas.net:

Jack Armand Butler Jr. is a poet and novelist known for structurally experimental writing, usually dealing with the development of a religious self-awareness transcending orthodox views. His work is often sexually charged and humorous.

Jack Butler was born May 8, 1944, in Alligator, Mississippi, to Jack Butler, a Baptist preacher, and Dorothy Butler, a homemaker. He attended high school in Clinton, Mississippi. He was ordained a Baptist minister in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1965, and pastored the Bethlehem Baptist Church briefly in 1966. He received a BS in math and a BA in English from Central Missouri State College (now Central Missouri State University) in 1966. That year, he married Lynnice McDonald, with whom he had two children, Lynnika and Sarah; they divorced in 1977. He earned an MFA from the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) in 1979. In 1983, he married Little Rock (Pulaski County) native Jayme Thomas Tull, a purchasing manager, and became stepfather to her two daughters. They divorced in 2004.

Butler has won several awards, including one from the Boatwright Literary Festival in 1971 for his story, “Voices.” He won first prize for fiction from Black Warrior Review in 1978 for “Without Any Ears” and in 1981 for “A Country Girl.”

Butler has written eight books, including three novels, a short story collection, a recipe collection, and two poetry collections, West of Hollywood: Poems from a Hermitage (August House, 1980) and The Kid Who Wanted to be a Spaceman (August House, 1984). His poetry has been published in several anthologies, including Best Poems of 1976, edited by Joyce Carol Oates; Ozark, Ozark, edited by Miller Williams; and Arkansas Voices. His poems have been published in many magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Mississippi Review, and New Orleans Review.

Butler’s first novel, Jujitsu for Christ (August House, 1986), told the racially charged story of a young man who opens a martial arts school in a predominantly black area in Jackson, Mississippi. Nightshade, a science fiction novel, followed in 1989 from Atlantic Monthly Press. His next book, Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock (Knopf, 1993), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It tells the story of a lawyer, Charles Morrison, whose wife, Lianne, is a former Miss Little Rock. Ostensibly a love story, the novel also captures a portrait of Little Rock and Arkansas. It uses collage, newspaper excerpts, cartoon reprints, and unusual arrangements of dialogue. It features an omniscient narrator who claims to be either the Holy Ghost or perhaps Lianne’s deceased dog to tell the love story that becomes a murder mystery. The novel received national notice for its unconventional style and helped Butler rise from the ranks of regional writer.

In 1997, Algonquin Books published a cookbook, Jack’s Skillet: Plain Talk from a Guy in the Kitchen, and in 1998, Knopf published Dreamer, a novel about dream research and set in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Butler was a writer in residence for the Joint Educational Consortium in Arkadelphia (Clark County) from 1974 to 1977; an English instructor at UA from 1977 to 1979; a science writer and public relations director for the Cancer Cooperative Group of Northwest Arkansas from 1979 to 1980; an actuarial analyst for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Arkansas in Little Rock from 1980 to 1983; and a rate analyst at the Arkansas Public Service Commission until 1988. He became an assistant dean at Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County) in 1988 but left Hendrix in 1993 to be co-director of the Creative Writing Program and an associate professor of creative writing at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. He retired in 2004 for health reasons and now lives in Wyandotte, Oklahoma.
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Combine Editions
Jack Butler’s books

Average rating: 3.9 · 336 ratings · 46 reviews · 56 distinct works

	Jujitsu for Christ 4.04 avg rating — 137 ratings — published 1986 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock 3.90 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 1993 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nightshade 3.24 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1989 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jack's Skillet: Plain Talk and Some Recipes From a Guy in the Kitchen 3.95 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hawk Gumbo and Other Stories 3.86 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1983 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dreamer 3.50 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1998 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	West of Hollywood: Poems from a hermitage (August House poety series) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1980 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Kid Who Wanted to Be a Spaceman and Other Poems really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1984 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Durand Eastman Park: Yesterday and Today 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Practicing Zen Without a License really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Jack Butler (?)

“That's the trouble with innocents. They aren't innocent of doing, just of knowing what they're doing.”
― Jack Butler, Jujitsu for Christ

tags: literary-fiction, southern

3 likes

“I have more faith in my God than to believe He would give me a mind and then ask me not to use it.”
― Jack Butler, Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock

2 likes

“I guess we ought to be tolerant," Lianne said. "They're just nasty because they need help. Everybody ought to be allowed to try and help themselves."

No, ma'am, that aint true," Sarah said. "Some people ought to be shot on sight.”
― Jack Butler, Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock

1 likes

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Jack Butler’s Followers (10)

Jack Butler

Combine EditionsJack Butler’s books

Combine Editions
Jack Butler’s books