Maekju
Maekju ("beer" in Korean) is the user name for Phil Slattery.
In December 2020, I founded The Chamber Magazine, which publishes contemporary dark fiction and poetry. In 2022, I founded Rural Fiction Magazinee, which publishes fiction and poetry for an educated rural audience or for those with rural backgrounds and connections.
As of May 2023, I work for the National Park Service at Arkansas Post National Memorial.
Prior to entering the National Park Service in 1998, I worked occasionally as a photographer doing wildlife photography, event photography, school photography, and for Max Magazine (now defunct), in Lexington, KY. I have several photos published in textbooks, on the Internet, and, for a few years, I had one stock photo in the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Prior to that, I was an officer in the US Navy from 1985-1996, during which time I traveled extensively.
Prior to that, I was in a graduate program in German at the University of Kentucky but joined the Navy before obtaining my graduate degree.
I obtained a B.A. in 1980 from Eastern Kentucky University with a double major of German and Russian. During my undergraduate years, I traveled extensively in Europe, especially in (West) Germany and Austria. I also have some college credit in Spanish, French, Latin, New Testament Greek. Of all these, I speak German and Spanish the best currently. I am rather rusty with the rest.
I have also tried my hand at abstract art and have managed to sell a few paintings. My art can be found at https://philslatteryart.wordpress.com/
Since the mid-1980's I have been writing poetry and fiction occasionally as a hobby, but now I am striving to become a novelist. Please visit my personal website for more information. I sell my short story collections on my Amazon author's page. My collection of short horror, A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, is sold on my Amazon author's page or via print on demand at most major bookstores.
I married Francene Kilgore on July 27, 2017, at the Biopark in Albuquerque, New Mexico.