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About meI grew up in the small, rural West Virginia town of Sod, named for Samuel O’Dell Dunlap, the first postmaster and a Baptist preacher who married my grandparents Okey and Dessie Graley in a deep snow on March 18, 1936. My family raised goats as pets, and some of my best memories are of days spent in the company of goats.
Sod is in Lincoln County, south of the capitol city of Charleston. Although Lincoln County is small in population, in school there I had excellent teachers who encouraged me in my writing and reading of literature. At Marshall University I studied journalism even though my favorite classes were those with novels, short stories, and poetry. I have always loved the “voice” on the page. One of the things I value in literature is the way it can help us better understand the perspectives of others. Stories and poems and plays offer us the chance to meet characters and authors whose lots might be different than our own. After I graduated from Marshall, I worked four years as a reporter at a local newspaper and then turned back to my first love: literature. I pursued my MFA degree in creative writing at McNeese State University, then went on through the doctoral program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where I now teach writing, literature, and humanities. Here I’ve found many good friends whose kindness is among their winning attributes. I love food, and Lafayette is one of the best places I’ve ever eaten. You can find a good restaurant in every part of the city, from Thai to Greek to Cajun. I’m a runner, too, partly because of how much I love to eat. |
Credo
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I believe in loving, or trying to love, all the neighbors, regardless of race, creed, difference, or eccentricity. To me, loving people means making them feel welcome, trying to understand their views, treating them with respect, and giving them the benefit of the doubt instead of condemning and ostracizing them. Many of the characters I create may begin with this premise but then wind up in situations where their good will is challenged. I guess I’m interested in exploring the “blind sides” we all have when it comes to loving others. This is an old theme. Witness the Bible story of the good Samaritan as well as that of the Apostle Peter with his reluctance to befriend the unclean Gentiles of Caesarea.
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