Kent Anderson (novelist)

Kent Anderson grew up in North Carolina. At age 19 he joined the Merchant navy as an Ordinary seaman for two years.[1] In 1968 he enlisted in the US army and successfully applied and tested for the Special Forces. He was then assigned to Special Forces camp A-101 Mai Loc[2] from 1969 to 1970. He earned two Bronze Star medals for his service in South Vietnam[1]

After his service in Vietnam, he worked as a police officer in Portland, Oregon from 1972 to 1976.[1] Kent Anderson then joined the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Montana where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction in 1978.[3] He worked again as a police officer in Oakland, California in 1983 before resigning to write his first novel, Sympathy for the Devil, about a young Special Forces soldier in the Vietnam War.[1] He then worked as an assistant professor of English at UTEP in El Paso, Texas and at BSU in Boise, Idaho.[1]

Kent Anderson also worked as a screenwriter for Newline cinema, for which he wrote the scenario of Motorcycle Gang directed by John Milius.[4] In 1996, Kent Anderson published his second novel, Night Dogs, where the protagonist of his first book joins the Portland Police Bureau as a police officer in the late 70's. This book was selected by the New York Times in the Notable books of the Year in 1998.[5]

Currently, Kent Anderson lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he continues to write.[1]

• Sympathy for the Devil. Doubleday. 1987. ISBN 9780385239431
• Night Dogs. Dennis McMillan Publications. 1996. ISBN 9780553107647
• Liquor, Guns & Ammo. Dennis McMillan Publications. 1998. ISBN 9780939767298
• Green Sun. Mulholland Books. 2018. ISBN 9780316466806

• Kent Anderson at IMDb