In this volume, editors Patricia Somers and Matt Valentine lead an examination of the unintended consequences of campus gun policy and showcase voices from the college community who are grappling with the questions, issues, and consequences that have emerged at their respective institutions.

In 2013, Cutbank—the literary journal of the graduate creative writing program at the University of Montana—celebrated its 40th anniversary by publishing an anthology of the best work that had appeared in the journal through the years. I was honored that the editors chose to include my story “The Hindu Shuffle” in the anthology 40 Years of Cutbank, along with work by luminaries such as William Stafford, Richard Hugo, Mary Karr, Rita Dove, Stephen Dobbyns, Jim Harrison, William Kittredge and many others.

When I was still a young student, a mutual friend introduced me to Walter Meyer, an eccentric man full of stories, entrepreneurial ambitions, and artistic projects (mostly painting). He had drafted a brief memoir about his experiences as a boy in Nazi Germany—who ended up in a concentration camp not because he was Jewish, Romani, or homosexual, but because he had been an incorrigible hooligan, too disruptive in prison to remain in Germany’s traditional carceral system. Walter had great storytelling instincts, but little experience with the craft of writing—particularly in English. So I agreed to rewrite his book for an hourly wage. I spent many weekends sitting with Walter at his home in Westlake, interviewing him and coaxing out details of setting and character. I myself was a pretty inexperienced writer (so inexperienced that I didn’t know what I didn’t know). To my surprise, Walter convinced the University of Missouri Press to publish the book. The project was a valuable learning experience for me, though I recognize in retrospect that the book is a work of juvenilia.