Dale Neal is the winner of the 2009 Novello Literary Award for his first novel, "Cow Across America." He has an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College, and he has published his short stories and essays in Arts & Letters, Carolina Quarterly, Crescent Review, Marlboro Review and elswhere. One of the last surviving American journalists, he lives and works in Asheville with his wife, Cynthia, a veterinary technician student. When he's not at work on the next novel, he can be found out hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains with his pet Lab, Pearl.