Jeff May (Jeffrey Penn May) has a degree in English and Psychology, a Masters in Secondary Education, and a Writer’s Certificate from the University of Missouri where he studied under  David Carkeet and Howard Schwartz.

Mr. May was a featured writer in the St. Louis based magazine, The Written Word, and he has won short fiction awards from Writer’s Digest  and St. Louis Writers Guild where he is a Member of Distinction. He also won first place for short fiction from the Writers Society of Jefferson County.  His most recent stories appeared in Libbon and The Rambler, where his story "The Wells Creek Route" has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and recent poetry in Lindenwood University's Untamed Ink.

He has been a hotel security officer, waiter, credit manager, towboat deckhand, technical data engineer, English teacher, and creative writing instructor. He was the principal of a small alternative school where he organized a fund-raising, climbing expedition and appeared in television and radio spotlights.  In addition, he wrote and performed a short story for Washington University Radio, and was a consultant to a St. Louis theatre company.  Recently, he was an adjuct for St. Louis Community College.

Mr. May has rafted the Mississippi, searched for artifacts in central Mexico, and climbed mountains from Alaska to Colombia. His account of the climb in South America was featured in a Canadian adventure magazine and became the basis for his novel Where the River Splits.

He has published education and mountain climbing articles, technical writing guides, short stories and poems and has written a highly praised novella Cynthia and the Blue Cat’s Last Meow. Currently, he is an adjunct English instructor at Ranken Technical College.

Born in Monterey, California, on December 27, 1953, Mr. May has lived in the St. Louis area for most of his life. So far, he has survived mountain, river, and underground adventures, twenty-five years of marriage, and two teenagers.