Chris Offutt grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, a former mining town of two-hundred people in the Daniel Boone National Forest. He is the author of two memoirs: The Same River Twice and No Heroes; two collections of short stories: Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods; and one novel, The Good Brother. He has published over eighty stories and essays, including appearances in The New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Playboy, and on National Public Radio. His work is in many textbooks and anthologies such as Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays.
His work received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the NEA, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The international magazine Granta included him in its list of the “Top 20 Young American Writers.” He wrote and produced screenplays for True Blood, Weeds, and Treme, and TV pilots for Fox, Lions Gate, and CBS. A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, he lives in rural Lafayette County near Oxford, Mississippi.