Dennis M. Clausen grew up in the Midwest, where he gained an intimate knowledge of America's small towns and the lives they harbored. Those small towns provide the inspiration for many of the fictional and nonfictional books he has published. The Search for Judd McCarthy (2018), a best-selling paperback when first published under a different title in 1982, and its sequel, The Sins of Rachel Sims (2018), are both set in small towns. The Accountant's Apprentice (2018), a story that explores the unprovoked attacks on the nation's homeless, is his first book with an urban setting. Clausen is also the author of Prairie Son (1999), a book that was the recipient of the Mid-List Press's "First Series Creative Nonfiction Award." Prairie Son is the story of his adopted father Lloyd Clausen's efforts to find and connect with his birth parents and siblings. Goodbye to Main Street (2016), a sequel to Prairie Son, is a memoir that chronicles author Dennis Clausen's own forty-year effort to complete his father's journey and learn more about his biological family tree. American Tapestry (2020), a book of poems written in earlier poetic styles, is based on the many character types Clausen remembers from his formative years on the Midwestern prairie. In addition to his creative work, Clausen has written "Storytelling as Art and Craftsmanship," a book that explores storytelling conventions in film, literature, plays, historical legends, and other fictional and nonfictional works.