William Rodney Allen is an American

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and former

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of English at the

Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (LSMSA) is a public residential high school located in Natchitoches, Louisiana, US on the campus of Northwestern State University (NSU). It is a member of the National Consortium for Specializ ...

. He received his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, and was a faculty member at LSMSA from the time the school first opened in 1983 until his retirement in 2011. He is married to Cindy Allen, a counselor at the school, and has two daughters, Emily and Claire, with her. He has many interests, which include and are not limited to playing

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, and cutting down

Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendr ...

trees. He is also a

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...

fan and owns what is believed to be the last thing that Vonnegut wrote before his death in 2007, a

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. In some places, one can send a postcard f ...

addressed to Allen.

Works

''Walker Percy: A Southern Wayfarer''
University Press of Mississippi, 2006,
''Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut (Literary conversations series)''
University Press of Mississippi, 1988, * ''Understanding Kurt Vonnegut (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)'' (1991) * ''The Heath Introduction to Literature'' (1999)
''The Coen Brothers: Interviews''
Conversations with Filmmakers Series University Press of Mississippi, 2006,

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American literary critics American academics of English literature Duke University alumni American male non-fiction writers {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub