PAUL E. PERRY

BIO | LOST PEOPLE | STREET PEOPLE | ONTIVEROS STREET TRILOGY

Lost People by Paul Perry
ISBN: 1-929763-15-8
As a follow-up to his acclaimed Street People, Paul Perry returns with another short story collection about life's downtrodden. Perry's portrayal of sympathetic characters is dead on, and he creates a remarkable cast of people caught up in everyday struggles for survival. The stories work by themselves, but are more powerful as a whole. Abraham Maslow identified Food, Clothing, and Shelter in his Hierarchy of Needs. Yet, these people need far more than that. Like all of us, they require love and affection, and safety, and a sense of self worth. In this book, Mexicans try to cross the border, people live in buses, in parks, prisons, half-way houses, under bridges, even cardboard boxes. A profound ssense permeates these stories that the author is grateful and so should we all be for the gift of life, for roofs over our heads, for the ability of god and ordinary people to care for others. In a secular way, these tales are a metaphors for good works.
--Pocol Press

Read Luis The Brush-Walker online! (2001 Short Story Contest link)

Another remarkable collection of short fiction by a multiple award-winning author. Paul Perry, himself a youthful runaway, examines the life struggles of America's disenfranchised. There are tales of Mexicans repeatedly trying to cross the border into Texas; of people living in buses, scrounging around parks, going through the motions in half-way houses, huddling under bridges, and struggling with their incarceration. One man named Ossie carries his house (a large cardboard box) with him wherever he goes. Lost People, like all of us, these souls crave love, affection, and a sense of self-worth. Perry provides. A profound sense of gratefulness shines within--metaphors for hope, introspection, and courage.
--Pocol Press

Paul Perry was born in Nashville, Tennessee. When he was in his late teens, he spent a lot of time on the road, hitchhiking around the country, sleeping on the ground or in the back seats of unlocked automobiles. When he was nineteen he enlisted in the Army. He spent twenty-one years in the Army, retiring in San Antonio. After retiring from the Army, he became a freshman at the city community college, San Antonio College. Over the next nine years, while working full time and going to school in the evenings and on weekends, he earned his B.A. and M.A. He then began teaching English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He taught there for six years then moved to a tenured position at Palo Alto College. He taught there for six years, being promoted to Assistant Professor and serving for two years as Chairman of the English and Foreign Languages Department. He presently teaches English at San Antonio College on a part time basis.

Paul started writing when he was stationed in San Francisco and had some immediate success writing for the mens magazines that were popular at the time. He has had more than 150 stories published, most of them in literary magazines. He also wrote a novel entitled A Room in Ueno,The novel has won several awards including 1st Prize in Southwestern Louisianas Deep South Writers ConferenceWriting Competition. The judge of the competition was Ernest J. Gaines. The novel is presently under consideration by a publisher.

Paul is married to Toshi, whom he met in Japan more than fifty years ago. They have three sons, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

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Street People by Paul Perry Pocol Press; ISBN: 1929763085 Multiple award-winning San Antonio author Paul Perry's poignant tales describe the "fringe" members of American society: the downtrodden, homeless, prostitutes, winos, hobos, hitchhikers, ex-cons, alcoholics, drug addicts, drifters, panhandlers, and bums. Set in the highways, byways, and harsh concrete of today's Texas cities, these two dozen stories explore the issues and life struggles of denizens of the streets. An aching, unflinching, stark, and deeply moving tour through the "invisible" underbelly of the United States. Street People can be purchased from: Pocol Pressor Amazon.com Street People stories online: Read "Sylvia's Story, Under the Overpass" Read "A Night on the Street"		"Street People gives readers a vivid insight into the lives and dramas affecting homeless people in this country. The stories will break down your stereotypes as to who homeless people really are, and how in many ways, homeless people are no different from any of us."--Michael Stoops, Community Organizer, National Coalition for the Homeless, Washington DC "Each story in Paul Perry's Street People conveys a distinct feel and setting, and his characters reveal the human condition at its most colorful, its most flawed. Perry's stories sparkle with life." --Sarah Lepine, Editor, Foliage "Paul Perry's take on the down and out is both genuine and entertaining... qualities that evoke an overall awareness and compassion for the characters in his well-crafted stories."--Kelly Dessaint, Editor/Publisher, Phony Lid Publications

Ontiveros Street Trilogy by Paul Perry Argonne House Press; ISBN: 1887641696 Available at Amazon.com Contains: "Miracle of the Purple Petunias" 1st Prize winner in Kimera Literary Magazine's 1999 Fall Fiction Contest