As soon as he heard a student sing “The Ballad of Earl Durand” Jerred Metz knew that someday he would pursue the story. “All of my writing begins with a germ of an idea, an inkling, a bit of a story When I found the events reported at great length and in detail by the Denver Post and other newspapers I knew the story was worth exploring.”

To research The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand Metz interviewed fifteen people who were directly involved in the events of Durand’s last days. “I have a deep interest in the voice of the people, in oral literature,” Metz said. The spoken word—the phrasing of the accounts, the anecdotes specific to the ways of life and hence to the personalities of the people, the flavor of place, and the texture of the time—gave life to the story. His earlier book, Drinking the Dipper Dry: Nine Plain-Spoken Lives, also uses the style of the spoken word.

The author’s love of narrative dates back to his last year in high school when he discovered the master storyteller Jean Shepherd. Metz listened to him late into the night. Jerred said, “This is where I heard storytelling in action. I learned a lot from Shep.”

Metz’s imagination was cultivated during abundant “tractor time” while growing up on a New Jersey farm. Jerred’s life was both rural and urban; the farm was not far from New York, where he often visited museums, browsed bookstore and saw plays.

Metz’s active imagination and love of reading led to his academic study of literature. After earning a B.A. and M.A. in English at the University of Rhode Island he was awarded a Ph.D. in literature from University of Minnesota where he taught writing.

After teaching for four years at Webster College in St. Louis, Jerred was appointed Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services for St. Louis. Nine years later he went to Cardinal Ritter Institute to direct programs for the elderly.

All the while Metz wrote. He had five books of poetry and two books of prose published before The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand.

Now living in South Carolina, Jerred writes, and teaches writing and literature for Coker College and Webster University.