Freeman, James Andrew 1956–

PERSONAL: Born March 27, 1956, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; U.S. citizen; son of James Hedges (a physician and military officer) and Leonice (an elementary school teacher) Freeman; married Patricia Powers (an office manager), August, 1990 (divorced, 2006); children: Kellie Ann; (stepchildren) John Plantarich, Jr., Chris Plantarich. Ethnicity: "Caucasian/Native American." Education: Shasta College, A.A. (English), 1975, A.A. (journalism; with high honors), 1976; Reed College, B.A.,1978; Humboldt State University, M.A. (teaching writing; with high honors), 1980, M.A. (English literature; with high honors), 1981. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Unitarian/Freethinker." Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, horseback riding, restoring antique cars.

ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 294, Richboro, PA 18954. Office—Division of Language and Literature, Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA 18940. Agent—Charlotte Gusay Literary Agency, 10532 Blythe Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064. E-mail—freemanj@bucks.edu.

CAREER: Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, writing teacher, 1979–80, lecturer in English, 1979–81; Southern Oregon University, Ashland, assistant profes-sor of English and director of Writing Lab, 1981–82; Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA, professor of English and philosophy, 1982–. College Gifted Corp., teacher and director of summer creative writing program, 1988–. New Jersey Teen Arts Festival, creative writing coordinator, 1993; New Jersey State Council on the Arts, cochair of literature panel for organizational and institutional grants, 1993–98; Philadelphia Writing Conference, member of faculty board. WWDB-FM Radio, guest host of programs on "teacher bashing"; gives readings of fiction and poetry on public television and radio programs; organizer of workshops and seminars; conference participant.

MEMBER: National Council of Teachers of English, Two Year College Association, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Ph.D., Columbia State University, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Dostoevsky: Reason, Will, God, and the Problem of Freedom, Library, Reed College (Portland, OR), 1978.

The Relationship between Attitude Orientation and Growth in Student Writing Ability, Humboldt State University (Arcata, CA), 1980.

Fever Dreams (short stories and poetry), Adams Press (Chicago, IL), 1985.

Glyphs of Tehama (novel), Garall Press (Lakewood, OH), 1986.

Hidden Agenda (short stories and poetry), Northwoods Press (South Thomaston, ME), 1987.

Broken Things Fixed Things (poetry), Conservatory of American Letters (Thomaston, ME), 1988.

(Editor) The Rising Cost of Getting By (anthology), Conservatory of American Letters (Thomaston, ME), 1988–90.

Ishi's Journey from the Center to the Edge of the World (novel), Naturegraph (Happy Camp, CA), 1992.

Death Threats (short stories), Northwoods Press (South Thomaston, ME), 1994.

Sins of the Father, Sins of the Son (poetry), Northwoods Press (South Thomaston, ME), 1994.

(With Phyllis Agins) Never the Same River Twice (novel), Charles McFadden Co. (Winter Park, FL), 1996.

At the End of Halftime (poetry), Dry Crik Press (Los Angeles, CA), 2000.

Parade of Days (novel), Xlibris (Philadelphia, PA), 2005.

Author of the poetry collection Let the Wind Comb Your Hair, 2003. Contributor to books. Work represented in anthologies, including Dan River Anthology, Strictly Fiction Anthology, American Poetry Anthology, American Poetry Review, and Great Lakes Poetry Anthology. Contributor of short stories, poetry, articles, and reviews to periodicals, including Northwoods Journal, Poetry, Piedmont Literary Journal, Stone Country, Yardley Review, Higher Faculties, Resources in Education, Studies in American Indian Literatures, and Russian Review. Coeditor, Across Talk, 1984–87.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A Tale of True Love; a children's picture book, Lady and Sierra's Storage Shed Summer, with daughter, Kellie Ann Freeman; a collection of short-short stories tentatively titled Big Fat Masterpiece.

SIDELIGHTS: James Andrew Freeman once told CA: "I write to try to add or impose more order on the world, to discover interconnectedness, to play with language, to build fictional sand castles with words. I write fiction because, by telling what turns out occasionally to be good lies, I can sometimes make up the truth in a way that tells the truth better than the truth tells the truth. In other words, fiction can speak truth better than reality can. Good, believable lies that tell the emotional truth are more organized, more focused than the whirling dervish that reality is.

"My mother and my father have been, by far, the greatest influences on my writing life and my life. They, my grandparents, and my sisters have colored the optimistic way I view the world with a wider brush than any writers I also love. I can't imagine any writer being a larger influence on one's development and worldview than one's family is. That said, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Lawrence, Woolf, Dickens, Shakespeare, Eliot, Erdrich, Carver, Borges, Marquez, Neruda, Williams, Stafford, Pinsky and Grace Paley taught me a few things. So have my students and coworkers."