Craig J. Hansen

Craig J. Hansen (born 1954) is an American novelist, musician and retired professor and Dean from Wisconsin, now living in Stillwater, Minnesota.

Biography

Early life Hansen was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin and lived in Illinois from the age of 10 to 25. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (with a minor in English and Anthropology) in 1976, and a Master of Arts in English in 1980; both from the University of Illinois. In 1993 he completed a Ph.D. in English at the University of Minnesota with a focus on Technical Communication. During the years between his MA and Ph.D., he worked in the computer industry in a variety of technical and managerial positions.

Career Hansen has published several academic articles and a few short stories, but The Skeleton Train is his first novel. Published in 2010 by Sky Blue Waters Press, The Skeleton Train tells the story of Jason Audley; what many have referred to as a modern-day Huckleberry Finn. Jason narrates a story that begins when he is fourteen in an industrial Illinois town. The story includes his closest friend, Davey, and a young woman they encounter while hopping freight trains called The Pheadra.

Hansen's second novel, Winter Lake, published in 2012, is a sequel to The Skeleton Train and picks up Jason's life in northern Wisconsin seven years later. He continues to narrate the story as a drummer in a band with his trademark wit and wry sense of humor.

Hansen's third novel, The Morning Door, published in 2014, is the third in the Jason Audley series, and continues Jason's story as an adult in Northwest Wisconsin.

Hansen is also the co-author of Nonacademic Writing: Social Theory and Technology, published in 1995 by Lawrence Erlbaum.

In 2020, he retired as dean of the college of liberal arts at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He also plays guitar for the group Cattail Moon Band. He's played the guitar in many bands since the age of fourteen, and can also play the mandolin and accordion.

Personal life Hansen lives in Stillwater, Minnesota with his wife.