ERIK RASCHKE

ERIK RASCHKE received an MA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. His first novel, The Book of Samuel (St. Martin's Press in 2009) was translated into Italian and nominated for the prestigious Printz award. His short stories and essays have been published in, among others, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Hazlitt, De Volkskrant, and Guernica. His short story, “Winch” (Portland Review), was nominated for the 2018 Best American Short Stories.  As a reporter in the early nineties for The Newsletter and Belfast Telegraph, Erik covered the bombings, shootings, and assassinations that marked the end of The Troubles. Later, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia and a certified New York public school teacher working with lower-income students in the upper-Manhattan/Bronx area. He became a dual Dutch and American citizen in 2013. He lives in Amsterdam with his wife and three boys and currently teaches writing at The University of Amsterdam.