Kent Haruf

Alan Kent Haruf (, rhymes with ''sheriff''; February 24, 1943 – November 30, 2014) was an American writer born and raised in Colorado. Haruf wrote six novels and a number of short stories. All of his works were set on the High Plains, mostly in the fictional town of Holt.

Haruf graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and also received a master's degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. Haruf initially struggled to succeed as a writer. In addition to stints as a janitor, construction worker, and farmhand, he spent years teaching English at a high school in Wisconsin and at universities in Nebraska and Illinois. Only at age 41, in 1984, was Haruf's work first published. Although his first two novels received critical praise, commercial success eluded Haruf until the publication of ''Plainsong'' in 1999, which gained wide recognition and bestseller status. He followed it up with ''Eventide'' (2005), a direct sequel to ''Plainsong'', and then ''Benediction'' (2013).

Throughout his career, critics praised his spare and elegant prose, authentic portrayals of rural life, and attention to the beauty found in ordinary things, although he was occasionally criticized for redundancy. In early 2014, Haruf was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease. He wrote his final book, ''Our Souls At Night'', while ill, and died that November. The book was published posthumously and adapted into a film of the same name. ''5280'', a Colorado magazine, wrote that Haruf is "widely considered Colorado's finest novelist", while the ''Dublin Review of Books'' called him "both uniquely American and profoundly universal." Provided by Wikipedia