Poe Ballantine is a fiction and nonfiction writer known for his novels and especially his essays, many of which appear in The Sun (magazine). His second novel, Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire, won Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year. The odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer that populate Ballantine's work often draw comparisons to the life and work of Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. He lives in Chadron, Nebraska with his wife Christina and their son.