David Huddle holds degrees from the University of Virginia, Hollins College, and Columbia University. Originally from Ivanhoe, Virginia, he taught for 38 years at the University of Vermont, then served three years as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University. He also held the 2012-2013 Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence in the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Huddle has continued to teach at the Bread Loaf School of English in Ripton, Vermont, The Sewanee School of Letters in Sewanee, Tennessee, and the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, Washington. Huddle’s work has appeared in The American Scholar, Esquire, Appalachian Heritage, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Shenandoah, Agni, and The Georgia Review. His novel, The Story of a Million Years (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) was named a Distinguished Book of the Year by Esquire and a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times Book Review. His novel, Nothing Can Make Me Do This, won the 2012 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction and his collection, Black Snake at the Family Reunion, was a finalist for the 2013 Library of Virginia Award for Poetry and won the 2013 Pen New England Award for Poetry. He has a novel (Hazel) and two poetry collections forthcoming in 2017 and 2018 (Effusive Greetings to Friends and My Surly Heart).
Facing the blank page of the empty computer screen requires an unswerving belief in possibility, a steadfast assurance that something can and will come out of nothing. In The Writing Habit, David Huddle demystifies the writing task and shows that what may seem like alchemy is in reality a habit: the work itself, not magic, unlocks the writer’s potential.
Fiction. Maura Nelson, who has a sophisticated background in science, medicine, and programming, has stumbled upon a way to execute someone using only the computers in her home office--silently, anonymously, leaving no trace of violence, so that her target appears to have died of natural causes.
As gradual as a cloud passing or a blossom opening, this is the story of a woman very slowly dying, accompanied by her husband and an astonishing number of offspring, from infants to young adults. David Huddle's nineteenth book explores how children grieve, and shows how the wit and courage of even the littlest brothers and sisters can be a source of resilience.
Fiction. Can we ever truly know another person, however well-loved? Brainy, decent, funny, and likeable, the members of Horace Houseman's family and his closest friend possess quirky and compelling interior lives that they reveal to no one else.
In his compelling new collection, David Huddle writes, "We think / we stand in the vivid color of here and now / and view the past as drab black and white, / whereas the truth is -- it's our future / that's the off-center, badly focused grayscale."