{{short description|American writer (born 1976)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Skip Horack | image = Skip Horack 2015.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Horack at the 2015 Texas Book Festival | pseudonym = | birth_name = Bruce Maclachlan Horack, Jr.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.floridabar.org/directories/find-mbr/|title=Lawyer Directory – The Florida Bar}}</ref> | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1976|5|24}} | birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Author, professor | nationality = American | period = | genre = Fiction | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''The Southern Cross'' (2009)<br />''The Eden Hunter'' (2010)<br />''The Other Joseph'' (2015) | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | website = | portaldisp = }}

'''Bruce Maclachlan "Skip" Horack, Jr.''' (born May 24, 1976) is an American writer.

==Life and career== He was raised in Covington, Louisiana where he attended St. Paul's School.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Antopol |first=Molly |date=2015-03-23 |title=The Rumpus Interview with Skip Horack |url=https://therumpus.net/2015/03/23/the-rumpus-interview-with-skip-horack/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=The Rumpus |language=en-US}}</ref>

Horack holds a B.A. in English and a J.D. from Florida State University. He worked as a lawyer for five years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana<ref>{{cite web |url=http://southeastreview.org/2009/09/skip-horack.html |title=Skip Horack - the Southeast Review Online |access-date=2009-11-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029090943/http://southeastreview.org/2009/09/skip-horack.html |archive-date=2009-10-29 }}</ref> before committing fully to writing and teaching.

He is a former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bennitt |first=Tom |date=December 12, 2013 |title=Grist for the Writing Mill: An Interview with Skip Horack |url=https://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/grist-for-the-writing-mill-an-interview-with-skip-horack/ |website=Fiction Writers Review}}</ref> and is currently an associate professor at Florida State University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Skip Horack {{!}} Department of English |url=https://english.fsu.edu/faculty/skip-horack |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=english.fsu.edu}}</ref>

His story collection ''The Southern Cross'', which won the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize,<ref>{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222002939/http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/blwc/bakeless/2008_Winners.htm |date=February 22, 2012}}</ref> was published in 2009 by Mariner Books. The contest was judged by Antonya Nelson, who called the story collection "a knockout winner." Hailed as a "storyteller of uncommon talent," Horack's stories are "artfully evoked and deeply felt"<ref>{{cite web|author=Susan Larson |url=https://www.nola.com/books/index.ssf/2009/08/skip_horack_makes_a_fine_debut.html |title=Skip Horack makes a fine debut with 'The Southern Cross' |website=NOLA.com |date=2009-08-19 |accessdate=2016-11-18}}</ref> and depict characters that are "vital, funny, and heartbreakingly human."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2009/jul/08/editors-picks-books/ |title=Oxford American - the Southern Magazine of Good Writing :: BOOKS: JULY |access-date=2009-11-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028164844/http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2009/jul/08/editors-picks-books/ |archive-date=2009-10-28 }}</ref>

His novel ''The Eden Hunter'' was published in August 2010 by Counterpoint and was a ''New York Times Book Review'' Editors' Choice.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-10-15 |title=Editors’ Choice |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/books/review/EdChoice-t.html |access-date=2025-07-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Reviewer Sven Birkerts noted: "Horack, the author of a well-received story collection, ''The Southern Cross,'' writes luminous, clean prose....He has a poet’s tuned attentiveness, but never uses his sentences to preen."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/books/review/Birkerts-t.html/ |title=Book Review - the Eden Hunter - by Skip Horack - the New York Times |website=The New York Times |access-date=2017-02-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118224712/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/books/review/Birkerts-t.html |archive-date=2016-11-18 }}</ref>

His novel ''The Other Joseph'' was published in March 2015 by Ecco. ''Publishers Weekly'' called it an "exciting, well-plotted sophomore novel" that "delivers satisfying plot turns."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Other Joseph by Skip Horack |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780062300850 |access-date=2025-06-19 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref>

Horack's fiction and nonfiction has also appeared in ''Oxford American'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Issue 67, Winter 2009 |url=https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-67-winter-2009 |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=Oxford American |language=en}}</ref> ''The Southeast Review'', ''New Delta Review'', ''Louisiana Literature'', ''The Southern Review'', ''StoryQuarterly'', ''Epoch'', ''Narrative Magazine'', and elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Skip Horack |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/skip-horack-201511225223313 |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=HarperCollins |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-06-02 |title=Middlebury College Bread Loaf Writers' Conference awards 2008 Bakeless Prizes in poetry, fiction and nonfiction {{!}} Middlebury News and Announcements |url=https://www.middlebury.edu/announcements/2008/06/middlebury-college-bread-loaf-writers-conference-awards-2008-bakeless-prizes-poetry-fiction |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=www.middlebury.edu |language=en}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.skiphorack.com/home Official website] * [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/books/review/Birkerts-t.html ''New York Times Book Review'' review] of ''The Eden Hunter''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horack, Skip}} Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:American short story writers Category:Writers from Louisiana Category:Florida State University College of Law alumni Category:Stanford University faculty Category:Florida State University faculty Category:People from Covington, Louisiana