Kent Cowgill grew up in the tiny village of Silver Creek in central Nebraska, took a doctorate in medieval English literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1970, and spent his academic career at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, where he retired in 2001.

His previous publications include literary fiction, essays on medieval literature, a variety of short stories and comic essays and two previous books: Raising Hackles on the Hattie’s Fork and The Cranberry Trail: Misfits, Dreamers, and Drifters on the Heartland Road, His latest book is Back In Time: Echoes of a Vanished America in the Heart of France, which seeks to place his deep love of the French terroir within the context of the profound changes that have withered village life in much of heartland America.

Cowgill lives in rural Houston County, Minnesota.