Tony Woodlief

Tony Woodlief is a writer of essays, creative non-fiction, and fiction who was born and raised in North Carolina. He spent many years in the Midwest before moving back to a small town in his home state, and along the way he earned a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan and an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University. His essays on faith, parenting, politics, and culture have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Post, and numerous other publications.

Neither of Tony’s prior books are fiction, but they grapple with themes found in his novel: loss, longing, brokenness, the quest for redemption. His 2010 spiritual memoir, Somewhere More Holy, was listed among Image’s top ten works of that year. His 2021 book about the destruction of American democracy, I, Citizen, has received praise from readers across the political spectrum, and sparked the 2023 documentary Undivide Us, which has been screened in film festivals across the U.S., and in which he appears.

Tony’s first love as a reader and writer has always been fiction, and the support he received and continues to draw from teachers and colleagues in Wichita’s creative community sparked several works, including his present novel. Several short stories he began while at Wichita State University have appeared in Image, Ruminate, Dappled Things, and Saint Katherine Review, among other literary journals. “Name,” his haunting story narrated by a Cambodian victim of the Khmer Rouge, received a Pushcart Honorable Mention in 2010, and was included in Image Journal’s 25^th anniversary anthology. Having spent years in gyms as a wrestler and as a father of wrestlers, he is presently at work on a novel about two young wrestlers being raised by their widowed father in Iowa.