My NC State Story: Jason Erik Lundberg (Technology Education ‘97, English ‘05)

I graduated from NC State with a master’s degree in English (concentration in creative writing) in 2005, and I can draw a direct line from then until now. For years afterward, I taught English and literature at the university level in the U.S., and then at the university and secondary school level in Singapore. In 2012, I was hired by Singapore’s preeminent publisher, Epigram Books, to kickstart their fiction division.

As fiction editor, I have overseen many books that have gone on to win major awards and that were listed on various years’ best lists. In addition, I have published 24 of my own books, including fiction collections, a novella, children’s picture books, chapbooks and eight anthologies. My first novel (and 25th book), A Fickle and Restless Weapon, will be released in June 2020. I owe much of this to my time at NC State and to the guidance of John Kessel, who was my thesis adviser and mentor.

Writer Jason Erik Lundberg is a fiction editor at Epigram Books.