Breeden, David 1958-

PERSONAL:

Born March 23, 1958, in Granite City, IL; son of Marion and Mary Breeden; children: Audrey, Jesse, Patrick. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Southeastern Illinois College, A.A., 1978; Southern Illinois University, B.A., 1981; University of Iowa, M.F.A., 1985; University of Southern Mississippi, Ph.D., 1988; student at Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary, 2005—; also attended Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1995, and Naropa Institute. Religion: Unitarian-Universalist. Hobbies and other interests: Travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Chicago, IL; Broughton, IL. E-mail—david.breeden@sbcglobal.net; davidbreeden182@yahoo.com.

CAREER:

Substitute teacher at public schools in Iowa City, IA, 1983-85; Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, assistant professor of English, 1988-91; Schreiner College, Kerrville, TX, professor of English, 1991-2005, department chair, 1995-2004 divisional dean, School of Liberal Arts, 1999-2002, and publisher, Press of the Guadalupe. Texas Tech University, teacher at Fredericksburg campus, 2005; conference participant; public speaker; gives readings from his works. Virtual Arts Collective (Web site), editor; staff writer for Circle magazine and Audio Books Today Web site; judge of literary awards.

MEMBER:

American Literary Translators Association, PEN Center USA West, National Writers Union, Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, Associated Writing Programs, Popular Culture Association, Unitarian Universalist Poets Cooperative, Sigma Tau Delta.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grants from Texas Commission of the Arts, 1992, 1993; Best of the Fest Award, Great Lakes Independent Film Festival, 2003, for Off the Wall; Bordon-Holton Award for Sermonic Excellence.

WRITINGS:

Picnics (poetry chapbook), Black Buzzard (Arlington, VA), 1985.

Hey, Schliemann (poetry), Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 1990.

Double Headed End Wrench (poetry), Cloverdale Press (Bristol, IN), 1992.

Building a Boat (poetry chapbook), March Street Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1995.

The Guiltless Traveler (poetry chapbook), March Street Press (Greensboro, NC), 1996.

Another Number (novel), Silver Phoenix Press (Austin, TX), 1998.

Stack to the Moon (novel), Crossroads Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2000.

Artistas (novel), Superior Books (Indian Lake, NY), 2001.

(With William W. Woods) Off the Wall (short film), Vision Crew Unlimited (Hollywood, CA), 2002.

Surviving the Coup (poetry chapbook), March Street Press (Greensboro, NC), 2003.

Ice Cream and Suicide: Difficult Poems for the Masses, UKA Press (Bristol, England), 2005.

A Poet's Guide to Divorce; or, Passivity's Charms, Fine Tooth Press (Waterbury, CT), 2005.

Stigmata Is like That, March Street Press (Greensboro, NC), 2006.

Author of a novel, Chucking the Cliffs Notes, published in electronic form by the former Web site PulpBits. com.; film scripts include House Whine, British Columbia Film Commission, and Golgotha Hanger; plays include Aunt Emma's Wake and Daddy Wasn't Right, included in Writer's Hood. Author of "Ask Dr. Poetry," a column in the Montrose Morning Sun and at the Lone Star Internet Culture Cafe Web site. Contributor of poetry, short stories, essays, articles, and reviews to magazines and Web sites, including Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, Fine Madness, California Quarterly, Wormwood Review, Rockhurst Review, Amarillo Bay, Turnstile, Borderlands, and Boston Literary Review. Contributing editor, Inklings; past editor, Context South.

Breeden's papers are archived at Southern Illinois University.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Breeden told CA: "My primary motivation in writing is a compulsion to do so. I exist in a world of symbol and language. I can either be manipulated by them, or I can choose to do the manipulating.

"My main influences as a writer have been Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, and Allen Ginsberg.

"In process I am creatively messy. That is, I like to leave the materials out on the table all the time and play with them whenever the book strikes. I carry a small notebook with me at all times.

"The themes in my writing are materiality, spirituality, and the problems the disjunctions between them create. I didn't choose the subjects, they chose me!

"My writing has changed with time from a lyric impulse to a narrative impulse. Now I've circled back to lyricism again."