Dave Madden

Dave Madden is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco and author of If You Need Me I'll Be Over There (Indiana University Press, 2016) and The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy (St. Martin's, 2011). If You Need Me I'll Be Over There, a collection of short stories, tells the tale of a different kind of difference—one not set in the glittering lights of New York or Los Angeles, but in the grand and wide American Midwest. His writing was recently featured in Harper's Magazine.

"In my Ph.D. program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I was given the time and resources to write a book on the history and culture of taxidermy, a project that began in a nature writing course taught in the English department by biologist John Janovy. While national in scope, my research benefitted from such nearby resources as the Nebraska State Historical Museum and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. This book enabled me to get a job teaching nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and I credit the opportunities at Nebraska and specifically the Place Studies program for making it happen."

Recent Publications

If You Need Me I'll Be Over There (Indiana University Press, 2016)

The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy (St. Martins, 2011).

"In the Desert Air." NOÖ Online (August 2010).

"Play Dead." Tampa Review 37 (2009).