Vincent Meis

Vincent Traughber Meis was born and grew up in a large family in Decatur, Illinois. From an early age, he wrote plays, which he cajoled his sisters to act in, as well as poems and stories. In high school, he continued to write stories and won a local contest sponsored by the newspaper. After graduating from Tulane University, he worked on a number of short stories and a couple of novels, which collected dust on the shelf. It was finally in the 1980’s that he saw his first bylines in several published pieces, mostly travel articles, but also a few poems and book reviews, in publications such as, The Advocate, LA Weekly, In Style, and Our World. He began traveling extensively and lived overseas in Spain and Saudi Arabia where he taught English as a Second Language. Due to his international exposure, many of his articles, stories and later novels, deal with the gay experience in other cultures. In 1991 he started teaching English at City College of San Francisco where he wrote, edited and acted as the Publications Coordinator for Union Action. He wrote profiles of union members, features, and worked on countless articles as an editor. The publication won numerous awards from the California Federation of Teachers.

In 2011, he took an early retirement from City College and began to seriously publish his work. Since that time he has published ten novels: Eddie’s Desert Rose, Tio Jorge, Down in Cuba, Deluge, Four Calling Burds, The Mayor of Oak Street, First Born Sons, Colton’s Terrible Wonderful Year, and The Long Journey to You. Tio Jorge, Down in Cuba, and Deluge have all won Rainbow Awards. The Mayor of Oak Street and First Born Sons have won Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards. His short stories have appeared in several collections both in print and online and have reached finalist status in several short story contests. Most of the characters in his novels and short stories come from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and are racially and ethnically diverse. A collection of short stories, Far from Home, was published in October 2021. He lives with his husband in San Leandro, California and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.