POLAIK, The Next...Nathan Shumate

When you attend a local literary symposium or convention, you're bound to meet people with many varied skills. Sometimes, you may run into someone who has several of those varied skills themselves. My next POLAIK (Profile Of Local Author/Artists I Know...) is Nathan Shumate. He's one of those people.

Like many of these POLAIKs, I first met Nathan at a convention. I believe it was at either the first Salt Lake Comic Con or the second. But during the past few years, Nathan and I have shared many a crowded table, trying to sell books and snacking on whatever tasty treats someone else (usually one of the Butler clan...) brought to the party.

Nathan is an author, but he's also an editor. Because he's such a people person, many of the works he's edited contain stories from some of the biggest and most successful local authors in the area. Some may argue that many of these authors wrote stories for Nathan's anthologies before they got big, but I believe they'd write for him no matter how successful they become. He's always willing to help someone out, no matter where they are in their literary or artistic career.

Besides being an author and editor (and book publisher...), he's also a gifted artist. You can check out several of his sketches on his website: HERE. And, if that's not enough, he also builds works of art. At one conference he asked if I wanted to attend a panel where the topic was creative physical art out of garbage. Okay, I'm sure that wasn't the name of the panel, and that it wasn't garbage from which they made art. But, Nathan sat with several artists and showed off his creations. I do remember him saying that he was excited when he found a dead bird in his yard because he wanted to use various parts of the bird--specifically the skeleton--in the pursuit of his next project. I think I asked about that particular project at another con. Turns out bird skeleton and certain chemicals don't mix--or they mix all too well.

Yes, Nathan will "Novel For Food," and apparently, will do other things as well. If you're at a convention or symposium and you happen to run into Mr. Shumate, let him tell you a little about what he does. You might be there a while.