Wayne Karlin

Who is Wayne Karlin?

Wayne Karlin is an American author, editor, and teacher. His books include Wandering Souls, Marble Mountain, War Movies: Journeys to Vietnam, The Wished-For Country, Prisoners, Rumors and Stones, Crossover, Lost Armies, The Extras, and Us.

Karlin attended White Plains High School, in New York and then served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1963 to 1967, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. His decorations include the Vietnam Service Medal, the Air Medal, and the Combat Air Crew Badge with three stars. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities in 1970 from the American College in Jerusalem and his Master's degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College in 1976.

He is a professor of Languages and Literature at the College of Southern Maryland, where he has taught since the mid-1980s. He was also American editor of the Curbstone Press Voices from Viet Nam series of books. That series includes The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers, which he co-edited with Lê Minh Khuê and Truong Lu; The Stars, The Earth, The River: Short Fiction by Le Minh Khue; Behind the Red Mist: Fiction By Ho Anh Thai; Against the Flood, a novel by Ma Văn Kháng; Past Continuous, a novel by Nguyễn Khải; The Cemetery of Chua Village and Other Stories by Đoàn Lê;, Love After War: Contemporary Fiction from Viet Nam, co-edited with Ho Anh Thai, and An Insignificant Family, by Dạ Ngân. He is currently editing a series of Southeast Asian fiction for Texas Tech University Press.