Max Zimmer

Max is working on the final book in the Shake Tauffler series - working title: Are You Going With Me

E. L. Doctorow loved Max Zimmer's first draft

He called it "the most publishable manuscript I've seen in a long time. As soon as it's finished, I want you to send it to me."

Raymond Carver nominated Max's first story for a Pushcart Prize

And it won.

John Gardner cried the first time he heard Max read "Utah Died For Your Sins"

When Max finished, Gardner stepped up onto the stage and said, “As Tolstoy said to Dostoyevsky, with tears running down his cheeks, ‘What a terrible, beautiful story!’”

Grace Paley met Max at the University of Utah in 1975

She read one of his stories and asked him to please stay in touch and let her know when he made it to New York

John Cheever was Max's biggest fan as a young writer

He pitched Max to the New Yorker: "I think his work outstanding and [Charles] McGrath at the New Yorker agrees with me on this."