Les Standiford

Les Standiford is an author and, since 1985, the Founding Director of the Florida International University Creative Writing Program in Miami, Florida. He also holds the Peter Meinke Chair in Creative Writing at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.Although his most recent books have been narrative non-fiction historical works, his novels featuring the character "John Deal" put him in the Miami School of crime fiction, whose progenitors are Charles Willeford and John D. MacDonald, and which includes Elmore Leonard, Jeff Lindsay, Carl Hiaasen, James W. Hall, Paul Levine, Edna Buchanan, and Barbara Parker.

Standiford's students have included successful novelists Dennis Lehane, Barbara Parker, Vicki Hendricks, Ginny Rorby, and Neil Plakcy. According to Publishers Weekly, in 1976, while he was the chairman of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas El Paso, "Standiford gave Raymond Carver his first job ... when Carver was recovering from his infamous alcoholic crash and burn."