RON CHILDRESS began publishing short stories in the 1980s. The manuscript of his debut novel, AND WEST IS WEST, won the PEN/Bellwether Prize in 2014. Originally planning to teach English literature and write fiction, he changed his career path after a year as a college adjunct. Moving from Florida to Washington, DC, he worked as a writer/editor for a professional association and then as a copywriter/technical writer/programmer for a marketing company that served high-tech clients.

AND WEST IS WEST is a panoramic novel of a changing America seen from ground level. Hopscotching from military bases to prison cells to corporate America, from New York to Florida to Nevada, California and Texas, its characters see their lives transformed by human error, technology, and post 9/11 events.