MISSISSIPPI WRITERS: Paul Ruffin

Paul Ruffin

Major Works

Short Stories

The Man Who Would Be God: Stories. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1993.
Islands, Women, and God (May, 2001)

Novels

Pompeii Man (December, 2001)
Castles of Gloom (to be published)

Poetry

Lighting the Furnace Pilot. Peoria, Illinois: Spoon River Poetry Press, 1980.
Our Women. Oxford, Mississippi: Abbott House, 1982.
The Storm Cellar. 1987.
Circling. Dallas: Browder Springs Press, 1996. (Winner of the 1997 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for poetry)

Other Writings

Ruffin It (regularly appearing column in numerous Mississippi newspapers)

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Biography of Paul Ruffin

Student Josh Read and author Paul Ruffin at SHS Paul Ruffin was born in Millport, Alabama, in 1941 but moved to Columbus, Mississippi, when he was seven. He grew up in Columbus and attended public schools there. After a brief tour of duty with the U.S. Army, he entered Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi, to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. Ruffin later changed his major to English and graduated from MSU in 1964. He then taught English at Hamilton High School for two years. After receiving his MA in English in 1968, he taught for three years at Lee High School in Columbus, Mississippi, and then taught one year at Caldwell High. In 1971 Ruffin entered the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg to pursue the Ph.D., which he was awarded in 1974. While at Southern he married Sharon Krebs, of Moss Point, Mississippi. Ruffin taught one year as an English instructor at Mississippi State before accepting a position with Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, where he currently resides.

Paul Ruffin is the Founding Editor and present Editor-in-Chief of The Texas Review, a literary journal with international Circling by Paul Ruffin distribution, and he is Founder and Director of Texas Review Press, as well as a member of the Texas A & M University Press Consortium. He also directs the Creative Writing Program at Sam Houston State University. His book of poems, Circling, was the 1997 winner of The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for poetry. In addition, Ruffin Islands, Women, and God by Paul Ruffin writes essays, reviews, and a regular newspaper column called Ruffin-It that appears in five different newspapers in the South, including The Starkville Daily News. His newest book of short stories, Islands, Women, and God, has just been published and a novel entitled Pompeii Man will be in book stores on December 5, 2001. Ruffin is currently working on a new novel called Castles of Gloom.

The following are currently being worked on by Paul Ruffin: The Phantom (novel)--under revision, Castle in the Gloom (novel)--with agent, The Book of Boys and Girls (poetry)--being researched and written, Rounded with a Sleep(novel)--being researched and written, Growing Up in Mississippi Poor and White But Not Quite Trash(memoir)--being researched and written. Ruffin has done readings and workshops all across the South and Southwest and in New England, the Northwest, and England, including appearances at numerous writing conferences and colleges and universities. His work has recently appeared in Southern Living, Southern Quarterly, Southwest Reader, and the Michigan Quarterly Review.

Paul Ruffin signs his book for Suzanne Davidson at Polliwogs in Starkville, Mississippi. In addition, Ruffin is a member of the Texas Institute for Letters, Mississippi Institute of Arts, Academy of American Poets, South-Central Modem Language Association, Conference of College Teachers of English, Conference of Editors of Learned Journals, Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers, and Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers. He is listed in The Directory of American Poets and Writers, The International Authors and Writers Who's Who, Who's Who in Writers, Editors, and Poets: United States and Canada, Who's Who of North American Poets, Who's Who: Personalities of the South, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World. His books and chapbooks include the following: Mississippi Poets (1976), The Texas Anthology (1979), Lighting the Furnace Pilot (Poetry, 1982), Our Women (Poetry, 1985), Contemporary New England Poetry: A Sampler (with George Garrett and X. J. Kennedy, two volumes, 1986-1987), The Storm Cellar (Poetry, 1987),To Come Up Grinning: A Tribute to George Garrett (with Stuart Wright, 1989), Contemporary Southern Short Fiction: A Sampler (with George Garret, 1991), Images of Texas in the Nation (with Terry Bilhartz, 1991), That's What I Like (About the South): Southern Fiction for the 1990's (with George Garrett, 1993, University of South Carolina Press), The Man Who Would Be God (short fiction, 1993, Southern Methodist University Press), After The Grapes of Wrath: Essays on John Steinbeck (co-edited with Donald Coers and Robert DeMott, 1995, Ohio University Press), Paul Ruffin Circling (poetry, Browder Springs Press, American Regional Book Series, 1996)--Winner of the 1997 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Poetry, A Goyen Companion: Appreciations of a Writers Writer (co-edited with Brooke Horvath and Irving Malin, 1997, University of Texas Press), and So There You Are: The Selected Prose of Glenn Brown, Journalist (edited work, Texas Review Press, 1998). In addition he has had over fifty stories and over 500 poems published in such journals and magazines as Alabama Literary Review Alaska Quarterly Review, American Literary Review American Way, Arkansas Review Chariton Review, Connecticut Review, Cross Timbers Review , Florida Review, Kansas Quarterly , Michigan Quarterly Review, New Mexico Humanities Review, The New Review North Atlantic Review, Northeast Review, Pembroke Magazine Ploughshares, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Review, and Southwestern American Literature. His works also appear in various anthologies.