Eric Stener Carlson

Eric Stener Carlson (Minnesota, 1969) is an author currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.

He wrote his first book, "I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared" (Temple University Press, 1996), when he was right out of college. It is based on his work with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identifying the remains of people killed by the military dictatorship in the 1970s. After working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, he wrote his second book, "The Pear Tree: Is Torture Ever Justified?" (Clarity Press, 2006), a very personal investigation into the use of torture and its moral consequences.

Eric became a novelist with the publication of "The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires" (Tartarus Press, 2009), a surreal, supernatural mystery. He followed this up with the novel, "Muladona" (Tartarus Press, 2016), "Anxiety of Ghosts" (Amazon, 2017) and his first short story collection, "GAS" (Abraxas Press, 2018). He has a number of other novel projects in the works.

His short stories and articles have appeared in journals in the US, UK, Argentina and Spain.

Eric holds a BA in International Affairs from The American University, an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was also a Fulbright scholar affiliated with the University of Buenos Aires.

Eric frequently lectures and is always happy to give talks to book clubs and universities.

I wrote a chapter in a book a few years ago called Now Write!  Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.  The chapter, "Finding Your Spirit in Speculative Writing", sums up my philosophy about writing:

"Writing is like dancing in the woods, alone.  It is like dancing until your toes bleed and your joints ache.  It is performing when there is only the hope that God sees your performance.  It is performing in the hope that there is, indeed, a God, and that, publish your novel or not, He is pleased by it."

I write, because I am compelled to write.  I write, because it's my way of finding my path in life, of making sense of the world.

I hope you find as much meaning in my books, as I do in writing them.

All the best,

Eric