Review
Schultz is a story teller in the best tradition... humor which frames the most inventive of characters. The serious studies are astonishing and fresh, and again bear unique characters. -- Keith Felton, Los Angeles Times Calendar
Such gems as would make a fight with the smut vigilantes worthwhile. -- Library Journal
The Tongues of Men is an extraordinary collection as much for the diversity of fictional forms as well as the always succinct style and often arresting imagery. I must say, I had a conception of John Schultz's prose as realistic, hard-hitting, semi-autobiographical recollection; and though I knew his humor (as though he had leavened James Jones with the irony of Algren and the whimsy of Saroyan), I was totally surprised and delighted by the sheer phantasmagoric madness of stories like 'Custom' and 'The Hickory Stick Rider.' The fact is, there is no easy way to categorize the range of stories in The Tongues of Men, which is a sure sign that Schultz is breaking new ground. And yet, at the same time, in a story like 'Visit to My Grandfather's Grave Alone,' he shows that he can inhabit the genre of personal confessional/recollection with absolute control and yet great tenderness and full play of emotions. -- Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac
Writing that is tough, intelligent, and decidedly germane.- Hayden Carruth -- The Chicago Daily News
About the Author
As Writer John Schultz has been interviewed for and appears in the PBS film "Daley: The Last Boss" (January 1996) and the Arts & Entertainment American Justice Documentary "The Chicago Conspiracy Trial" (1994, 1995).
His most recent book is The Chicago Conspiracy Trial (Da Capo, 1993, revised and updated version of Motion Will Be Denied, with an extensive Afterword by the author), about the spectacular trial of eight famous activists indicted for crossing state lines with intent to incite antiwar riots at the Democratic National Convention of 1968.
A two-hour-and-ten-minute BBC radio drama, "The Chicago Conspiracy Trial" (which first aired in the UK in August 1993, and in the US in the fall 1993) was based in part on his book and features John Schultz as guide and historical commentator.
Mr. Schultz's other books include the short novel, "Custom," 3x3 and 4x4 (Grove Press, 1963, 1967): The Tongues of Men includes the short novel "Custom," which was at the center of controversy in the seizure of John Schultz's manuscripts by Customs officials in Laredo, Texas (Big Table, 1969), and No One Was Killed (Big Table, 1969, about the 1968 Democratic Party Convention).
His text, Writing From Start To Finish (Heinemann/Boynton/Cook) was published in August 1982, concise edition issued in 1990. The Teachers Manual for Writing From Start To Finish was published by Heinemann/Boynton/Cook in 1983.
Mr. Schultz contributed dream plays to Dream Theater, Body Politic, 1970-72. The play version of "Custom" was produced at the Body Politic Theater, 1973.
Mr. Schultz was contributing editor of Evergreen Review, a leading literary and cultural magazine in the 1960's.
Now editor of F Magazine, he edited the anthologies f1, f2: Novels in Progress, The Story Workshop Reader, and The Best of Hair Trigger, among others. He has given many readings of his fiction and nonfiction, from the Big Table readings at Second City in the 1960's to recent readings in San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities.
Full interviews with Mr. Schultz were published in Chicago Review, 1977; Writing, Fall 1984.
An interview and reading of portions of a Korean War short novel "Daley Goes Home" were aired on "New Letters on the Air," and placed in the New Letters archive, 1986.
He has published two short novel-length essays: "The Siege of '68" in The Reader (September 1988); and "The Fabulous Presumption of Disney World: Magic Kingdom in the Wilderness" in The Georgia Review (Summer 1988), republished in German in Merian.
Originator of The Story Workshop Approach to The Teaching of Writing Mr. Schultz originated The Story Workshop method of teaching writing in 1965 and has continued to develop and broaden it, developing expository and argumentative as well as fiction writing approaches. He has given presentations frequently at national meetings of the Conference of College Composition and Communication, the National Council of Teachers of English, and other major conferences concerned with the teaching of writing, including two presentations at the Modern Language Association.
Various Work Over the Years 1975: November: He gave one of the featured presentations at the SUNY-Buffalo-NCTE Research on Composing conference.
1977: December: College English published a version of the Buffalo presentation, "The Story Workshop Method: Writing from Start to Finish."
1978: The full-length presentation appears in Points of Departure: Research on Composing, eds. Charles Cooper and Lee Odell, NCTE.
1978-97: Summers: He has been Research Associate with the Department of English, University of California, Berkeley.
1982: He was keynote speaker at the Focus on Writing conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
1982: John Schultz's text, Writing From Start To Finish (Heinemann/Boynton/Cook) was published in August 1982, concise edition issued in 1990.
1983: the Teachers Manual for Writing From Start To Finish was published, (Heinemann/Boynton/Cook).
1993: He was keynote speaker at the Fairfield University Revival Institute for Teachers.
1990: He was co-executive producer and narrator of The Story Workshop videotape "The Living Voice Moves" (1990) which features Betty Shiflett and her Advanced Fiction Class.
1992: He was co-executive producer and narrator of The Story Workshop videotape "Story From First Impulse to Final Draft" (1992) which also features Betty Shiflett and her Advanced Fiction Class.
Misc.: He has conducted Story Workshop training programs for the Chicago Board of Education, the Dallas Community College District, and other colleges, and Writing Across the Curriculum Workshop programs with the Dallas colleges and the Council for Independent Colleges.
Until September 1995, he was head of the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing and of the Master of Arts program in the Teaching of Writing, and chair of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College. He is now Professor Emeritus of Fiction Writing and member of the graduate faculty in Fiction Writing.
