Donald Lystra

DONALD LYSTRA was raised in the cities, towns, and suburbs of Michigan. As a young man he was employed as an auto plant worker, a door-to-door salesman, a dishwasher, and housepainter. He eventually settled into a career as a power plant engineer, though in his fifties he began to write fiction in a serious way.

As a writer Lystra has received creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McDowell Colony. His 2012 novel, Season of Water and Ice, received a gold medal from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and was named a Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. His 2014 story collection, Something that Feels like Truth, also received a MIPA gold meda and Michigan Notable Book award, as well as an IPPY gold medal for Best Regional Fiction. Lystra and his wife divide their time between a farm in northern Michigan and a town on the ocean side of Florida.