Patrick Vala-Haynes is a Sundance Screenwriting Fellow, fiction writer, essayist and poet, who knows more about well‑drilling, cannons, swords and alfalfa than any man should. As a freelance Fight Director, he has choreographed sword fights and hand-to-hand combat for more than a hundred stage productions in the Northwest.

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His written work has appeared in Sand, Split Rock Review, Sheepshead Review, Newsweek, Slate and elsewhere. The Henchman (short story) received the Emerging Writers Fiction Award at the Montana Book Festival. That story also figured in his Sundance Screenwriting Fellowship, and now opens a novel of the same title. Five adapted chapters from THE HENCHMAN have been published in literary magazines in the U.S. and Europe. The first chapter of his historical swashbuckler series, AT THE POINT OF HER SWORD, appeared in MeetMe@19thStreet from Arch Street Press.

 

He lives within running distance of the Oregon Coast Range.