Chris Tusa was born and raised in New Orleans. He holds a B.A. in English, an M.A in English, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Florida. His debut novel, Dirty Little Angels, was published by The University of West Alabama in March of 2009. He recently received a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and his work has appeared in Connecticut Review, Texas Review, Prairie Schooner, The New Delta Review, South Dakota Review, Southeast Review, Passages North, Spoon River, New York Quarterly, Louisiana Literature, Tar River, StorySouth, and others.Aside from teaching in the English Department at LSU, he also serves as Editor for Fiction Southeast. His debut collection of poems, Haunted Bones, was published by Louisiana Literature Press in 2006. He is currently working on a collection of flash fiction and on two novels: In the City of Falling Stars, a dark tragicomedy set in post-Katrina New Orleans featuring a middle-aged man who’s convinced his wife has been chosen by God to give birth to Jesus Christ; and a second novel, entitled Mean Blood, which is set in New Orleans in 1878 involving a young girl who is abducted to work as a prostitute in a brothel.

Tusa’s stories are, in effect, Southern-fried Greek tragedies. In his work, the Southern Grotesque characteristics of Faulkner and O’Connor intersect with a more contemporary, more urban depiction of the South. Typical themes include mental illness as well as the ways in which the contemporary, celebrity-driven American culture has managed to alter the landscape of the traditional Christ-haunted South.

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