Mark Scheel grew up in east-Kansas farm country. Prior to writing full time he served overseas in Vietnam, Thailand, West Germany, and England with the American Red Cross, taught in the English department at Emporia State University, was an information specialist with the Johnson County Library in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and served on the editorial boards of Potpourri Publications and Kansas City Voices magazine. His short stories, poems, articles, and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals, and he was co-author of the book Of Youth and the River: The Mississippi Adventure of Raymond Kurtz, Sr.
His 1997 book, A Backward View: Stories and Poems, received the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award from the Kansas Authors Club. His blog series formerly appeared on The Grant Journal and Scriggler, and in 2015 sixty of the entries were collected in the book The Pebble: Life, Love, Politics and Geezer Wisdom. His most recent book, And Eve Said Yes: Seven Stories and a Novella, was launched in October, 2019, from Waldorf Publishing, and a collection of his poetry, titled Star Chaser, is forthcoming in the spring, 2020, from Anamcara Press. When not writing, he enjoys listening to talk radio, reading avidly, traveling with his wife, Dee, lending support to the FairTax movement and participating in interfaith activities.
