Stephen Enzweiler is a contemporary American short story author. He grew up in a family of artists, writers, and musicians, and his roots reach back deep in Kentucky beyond the Civil War to the 1840's. He is the brother of nationally acclaimed Poet, Joseph Enzweiler.

Stephen developed an interest in writing at an early age. He wrote for his high school paper, and a continuing interest led him to study Journalism in college. It was at this time he developed an interest in creative writing and literature. His first published literary piece was a short essay, "Free Time", which appeared in the university's literary magazine The Atheneum in 1977.

After graduation, he worked as a cartoonist, a newspaper reporter, copywriter, graphic designer, and in public relations, then spent a number of years in the military. He owned an advertising agency for a time, and later took up writing full-time, teaching Creative Writing, Composition, and Literature at a local college and becoming Editor of Cincinnati Style Magazine and 757 Magazine. By the mid-1990's, he turned from Journalism to magazine writing and writing literary fiction, focusing primarily on the short story form.

His writing style is direct and un-apologizing, and his southern roots gave him a preference for Mississippi and the rural South as the setting for many of his stories. He cites Faulkner and Hemingway as his principal influences, but his approach and style departs from either of them and firmly establishes him as his own voice. His works have been colored by personal tragedy, with his stories typically employing deeply flawed characters embroiled in dark, turbulent contexts, often with unexpected plot twists and surprise endings.

In 2002, his first significant short story was published, "Whiskey and White Coffins", a tale that concerns a young, unmarried couple traveling from a small town to a distant city under mysterious circumstances. It was later made into a film, then adapted into a one-act play. Among his other stories are The Man Who Came to Dinner (2003), the modern war tales "Undiscovered Country" (2006) and Homecoming (2008), and "The Portable Man" (2007). He is presently at work on his first novel, along with a first short story collection.

Enzweiler writes for the Oxford, Miss. based Yall Magazine, in which he has published a series of short biographies of Mississippi's literary luminaries: William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Willie Morris, Walker Percy, and Richard Wright to name a few. In addition to writing, he is also an illustrator and cartoonist for the magazine and is creator of the popular comic strip Down South. Learn more about his cartoons at Yall-DownSouth.com.