WILLIAM E BURLESON
AUTHOR, EDITOR, PUBLISHER
“...Damon Runyon for the 21st century...”
“…humor, humility, and a surefire helluva ride.”
“Ahnwee Days is this season’s funniest, most tender-hearted novel... ”
Burleson is the author of three books. Rory’s Not That Guy: And Other Tales from Middle America (coming April 1, 2026, from Blackwater Press) is a short story collection that takes the reader on a tour of “flyover country,” from struggling small towns to honky-tonks to the parts of cities that don’t make it onto postcards. Ahnwee Days (2025 Blackwater Press) is a novel about a small town that has seen better days and the mayor who tries to save it. And in non-fiction, Bi America: Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community (2005 Haworth Press), takes the reader inside a community that is both huge and usually ignored.
His award-winning short stories have appeared in over two dozen literary journals and anthologies to date, including The Prague Review, The New Guard, and American Fiction 14 and 16.
Burleson’s non-fiction has also been published extensively in places such as the Hennepin History Magazine, and the Star Tribune, and numerous other publications.
However, his focus of attention over the past few years has been as founding editor for Flexible Press, LLC, Minneapolis, publisher of a wide range of award-winning literary fiction.