Dayne Sherman

Sherman was born in Hammond, Louisiana. He attended nearby private and public schools. He spent three years in ninth grade, and dropped out twice. He took his GED at 18 and enrolled in Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. He later earned a BA in Communication from Southeastern, then an MLIS degree from Louisiana State University, and an MA in English and creative writing. He studied under Tim Gautreaux and Andrei Codrescu.^[2]

He lives in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, north of New Orleans on the edge of the swamp. He is married and has one son born in 2005. He has a large extended family in Southeast Louisiana with hundreds of cousins. He is adopted.^[2]

Sherman, a full professor of library science, began publishing short fiction in 2001. His chapbook, Hard to Remember Hard to Forget, a short story, was published in 2003. His novel, Welcome to the Fallen Paradise,^[3] was published in 2004 by MacAdam/Cage, a now bankrupt publisher from San Francisco.^[4] Sherman is the founder & co-host: BAM, The Best in American Music Show (Original program name: Bluegrass And More) with Davy Brooks for KSLU 90.9 FM; this show launched on Jan. 6, 2013.^[5] Sherman's hobbies include playing vintage guitars, songwriting, hunting, fishing, book collecting, and buying Southern art and antiques.^[2]

• Welcome to the Fallen Paradise was listed as the sole Louisiana pick in Booklist magazine’s “Hard-Boiled Gazetteer to Country Noir” on May 1, 2012.^[1]
• Welcome to the Fallen Paradise was selected as the Aug. 2005 Adult Fiction selection for Dearreader.com, a program used by 3,000 libraries.^[6]
• Welcome to the Fallen Paradise was named a Best Crime Novel Debut of the Year by Booklist, May 1, 2005, a “Best Debut” of 2004 by The Times-Picayune, Dec. 26, 2004, & a Notable Book for Jan. 2005 by the American Booksellers Association Book Sense program, Dec. 22, 2004.
• Positive reviews of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: Booklist (Starred Review), Publishers Weekly, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal (book listed as a “Winter Wonder”), Sun Herald (Biloxi, MS), Jackson Free Press (Jackson, MS) South Baton Rouge Journal, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), Daily Journal (Tupelo, MS), Inside Northside (Mandeville, LA), Magnolia-Gazette (MS), The Double Dealer (Faulkner Society, New Orleans, LA), Mississippi Press (Pascagoula, MS), City Social (Baton Rouge, LA), Lion’s Roar (Hammond, LA), Daily News (Bogalusa, LA), AllThingsGirl.com, CurledUp.com, Southern Scribe, Wrist Watch Review, & Emerging Writers Forum.
• Welcome to the Fallen Paradise was a First Editions Club Pick for Dec. 2004, Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS. He signed over 400 copies. Over the Transom Books also chose the novel as their Oct. 2004 First Editions Club Pick.
• The “Talk About the South” was listed in Pop South’s “Have Y’all Heard? Voices from the Southern Blogosphere” by Karen L. Cox Feb. 15, 2014^[7]
• Recipient of the “Outstanding Faculty Service Award, 2009-2010,” Southeastern Louisiana University Student Conduct Hearing Board, Judicial Affairs.
• His work was the subject of Anthony Nicholas Parrino’s 2007 M.A. thesis at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Natchitoches, LA, titled “Should’ve Listened to the Dog: Dog Folk Beliefs in Dayne Sherman’s Welcome to the Fallen Paradise.”
• One of his short stories was nominated for a Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses for Short fiction by the staff of the Arkansas Review.
• 2005-2006, Southeastern Louisiana University President’s Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity. $3000 award.^[8]
• Listed in Contemporary Authors: Mellors, Julie, ed. “Sherman, Dayne 1970(?)-.” Contemporary Authors, vol. 243 (Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale, 2006) 385-386.
• TRIO Achievers Award, Louisiana Association of Student Assistance Programs, 2000.
• Member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
• Member of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society.

Chapbooks and Novels

• Hard to Remember, Hard to Forget, a limited edition chapbook (Over the Transom, 2003)^[9]
• Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel (MacAdam/Cage, 2004, 2005)^[10]
• Zion: A Novel (to be published by Accendo Books on October 30, 2014)

Short Stories in Anthologies

• “Chemistry.” Reprinted in Word and Image: Invitations to a Culture of Composition, 2nd ed. (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2013), the SLU Dept. of English Custom Reader.
• “Snakebit.” Reprinted in Word and Image: Invitations to a Culture of Composition (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2010), the SLU Dept. of English Custom Reader.
• “Too Late to Change.” Reprinted in Roots to Branches: An Ecology of Writing and Reading (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2007), the Southeastern Louisiana University Dept. of English Custom Reader.
• Chapbooks and Novels
• “Hard to Remember, Hard to Forget.” Reprinted in the 2004 edition of Stories from the Blue Moon Café III: Anthology of Southern Writers (San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage). Aug. 2004.

Short Stories

• "Witness: A Louisiana Story." Southeast Louisiana Review (Southeastern Louisiana University). Forthcoming in 2014.
• “Security.” Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley (Southeast Missouri State University Press). 2013.
• “Chemistry.” The Louisiana Review (Louisiana State University-Eunice). Spring 2011.
• “One More Disaster.” The Louisiana Review (Louisiana State University-Eunice). Spring 2009.
• “Too Stupid to Love.” Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies (Arkansas State University). Aug. 2006. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Dec. 1, 2006.
• “Man Enough to Buy a Gun.” Mississippi Review (University of Southern Mississippi). Partly True Stories Issue. (Summer 2006).
• “Too Late to Change.” Country Roads Magazine. Runner-Up for the Summer Fiction Contest. (Baton Rouge, LA). June 2006.
• “Returning Like a Dog.” Originally published in The Dead Mule. Web. Nov. 2002 issue. Reprinted in Microcosm (Copiah-Lincoln Community College). Spring 2005. Sherman was also the “featured author” for the issue.
• Chapter 3, an untitled excerpt from Welcome to the Fallen Paradise, a self-contained short story & novel chapter; reprinted in Louisiana Cultural Vistas (New Orleans, LA), the journal of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Spring 2005.
• “Dogs of Pain.” Jabberwock Review (Mississippi State University, Starkville). Winter 2005.
• “Spit.” The Powhatan Review (Norfolk, VA). Summer 2004.
• “The Sudden Sting of Memory.” The Distillery (Motlow College, Lynchburg, TN). July 2004.
• “The Hole.” Country Roads Magazine (Baton Rouge, LA). Print. Reprinted in the June 2003 Local Literature issue. Originally published in The Distillery. Jan. 2002. Reprinted as the prologue in Welcome to the Fallen Paradise.
• “Boys.” The Powhatan Review (Norfolk, VA). Summer 2002.
• “Snakebit.” Fourteen Hills: The San Francisco State University Review. Winter 2001. Reprinted in Word and Image: Invitations to a Culture of Composition (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2010), the SLU Dept. of English Custom Reader.

Dayne Sherman regularly writes opinion columns for a number of Louisiana newspapers. Guest editorials and commentaries on politics, K-12 education, pension reform, and higher education issues in the following newspapers and blogs: Shreveport Times, Houma Courier, Thibodaux Comet, The Political Desk, Louisiana Voice, and Action News 17, Mar. 2012–present.^[2] A critic of Governor Bobby Jindal, Sherman denounced the governor on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol on April 30, 2013.^[11] Though a registered Independent (No Party), Sherman is aligned with progressive causes.^[2]

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• Dayne Sherman (2004). Welcome to the Fallen Paradise. MacAdam/Cage. ISBN 9781931561730.

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