Arthur Powers went to Brazil in 1969 and lived most his adult life there. From 1985 to 1997, he and his wife served with the Franciscan Friars in the Amazon, doing pastoral work and organizing subsistence farmers and rural workers' unions in a region of violent land conflicts. The Powers currently live in Raleigh North Carolina.Arthur received a Fellowship in Fiction from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, three annual awards for short fiction from the Catholic Press Association, and 2nd place in the 2008 Tom Howard Fiction Contest. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many magazines & anthologies. He is the author of A Hero For The People: Stories From The Brazilian Backlands (Press 53, 2013) - winner of the 2014 Catholic Arts & Literature Award - and of The Book of Jotham (Tuscany Press, 2013) - winner of the 2012 Tuscany Novella Prize. He is Judge of the 2014 & 2015 Tom Howard/John Reid Short Fiction & Essay Contests, and of the 2015 Dappled Things J.F. Powers Short Story Contest.