Neil Ellis Orts is a native of central Texas, having grown up on a farm on the Lee and Bastrop counties line. He has degrees in theater (BFA, Texas State University, 1987), divinity (M.Div, Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest, 1995), and interdisciplinary arts (MA, Columbia College Chicago, 2003). He has published fiction and arts writing and 2004 saw his novel, Hidden Gifts, published. He also makes short performance pieces and has presented them in Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta. To keep up with his latest projects, join his electronic mailing list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/neoNews/.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

"Vernal Visitation" appeared in the 2007 edition of Windhover, published by the University of Mary Hardin Baylor. The annual journal is released each January in conjunction with UMHB's Writers' Festival. More information may be found at: http://library.umhb.edu/shelburne/writersfestival.html

"Grandfather's Photograph" appeared in the anthology, Charmed Lives, Edited by Toby Johnson and Steve Berman and published by Lethe Press. Visit: http://www.tobyjohnson.com/

"Graves Creations" appeared in the online humor webzine, Defenestration. Read it here:
http://defenestrationmag.net/works/prose/norts.html

 Hidden Gifts    ISBN: 141372082X

Following a terrible farming accident, Wayne Kinderhaus learns he has extraordinary gifts, gifts which unnerve his wife Janie and make his brother, Bobby, jealous. This is the story of one summer on the Kinderhaus farm, as they explore, with wonder and fear, the source and nature of gifts. (Visit the Amazon.com listing for a reader review.) Available from neoNuma Arts for $15.00, postpaid. E-mail neo@neonuma.com for details.

 Thirty-Six Echoes  ISBN: 0974162310

Between 1995 and 1998, Neil Ellis Orts wrote a monthly article for The Echoes, the newsletter of First English Lutheran Church, Austin, TX. Each month, he offered his church family a story, a meditation, or reflection--in 500 words or less. These pages include all thirty-six of those pieces plus two not previously publishes in The Echoes. Available from neoNuma Arts for $10.00, postpaid. E-mail neo@neonuma.com for details.

 Body of Grace ISBN 0974162302

Created in 2003 as his thesis project for his Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago, this little comic book has baffled critics (and in one case even provoked anger)--except one. Visit: http://poopsheetreviews.blogspot.com/2004_03_21_poopsheetreviews_archive.html

and scroll down a bit for the one reviewer who "got" it. And then order it from neoNuma Arts for only $5.00, postpaid. E-mail neo@neonuma.com for details. (This comic book is not a children's book due to language, nudity, and frank sexuality.)