Paul Ruffin Paul Ruffin Paul Ruffin was born in Millport, Alabama, on May 14, 1941, and moved to Columbus, Mississippi, when he was seven. He grew up in Columbus, attended public schools there. After a brief tour of duty with the U.S. Army, he entered Mississippi State University to pursue a degree in electrical engineering, later switched over to English, and graduated in 1964, whereupon he taught English at Hamilton High School for two years. After receiving his M.A. in English in 1968, he taught for three years at Lee High School in Columbus, then one year at Caldwell High.

In 1971 Ruffin entered the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi to pursue the Ph.D., which he was awarded in 1974. While at Southern he married Sharon Krebs, of Moss Point. Ruffin taught one year as an English instructor at Mississippi State before accepting a position with the English Department at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, where he still teaches today. Ruffin is the Founding Editor and present Editor-in-Chief of The Texas Review, a prestigious literary journal with international distribution, and he is Founder and Director of Texas Review Press, a member of the Texas A & M University Press Consortium. He also directs the Creative Writing Program at Sam Houston State University. In addition to numerous anthologies and nonfiction works edited or co-edited by Ruffin, he is the author of a collection of short stories, The Man Who Would Be God (1995), and four collections of poetry, the most recent of which was Circling (1996), which won the 1997 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Poetry. Works in progress by Ruffin include another short story collection, several novels, a book of poetry, and a memoir about growing up in Mississippi. He is a member of the Texas Institute for Letters, Mississippi Institute of Arts, Academy of American Poets, and several other professional organizations.

Related Links & Info Ruffin Wins Excellence in Research Award, an article online at Sam Houston State University Home Page, from

Publications

Fiction:

• The Man Who Would Be God: Stories. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1993.
• Islands, Women, and God: Stories. Dallas: Browder Springs Press, 2001.
• Pompeii Man. Hammond, LA: Louisiana Literature Press, 2002.

Ruffin has published more than 50 stories in magazines and journals, including the following:

Alabama Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, American Literary Review, American Way, Arkansas Review, Chariton Review, Connecticut Review, Crescent Review, Cross Timbers Review, Florida Review, Kansas Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, New Mexico Humanities Review, North Atlantic Review, Northeast Review, Ploughshares, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Review, Southwestern American Literature.

Ruffin's fiction also has appeared in the following anthologies and textbooks:

• Best of the West (Gibbs-Smith)
• College Handbook of Creative Writing (Harcourt, Brace, first and second editions)
• Contemporary Southern Fiction (Ploughshares)
• New Growth: Contemporary Short Stories by Texas Writers (Corona)
• Texas Short Fiction (Browder Springs)
• Alabama Bound: Stories of a State (Livingston University Press)
• Introduction to Literature (Regular Edition — Norton)
• National Public Radio

Nonfiction:

• Mississippi Poets. Jackson: Mississippi Library Commission, 1976.

Ruffin has also published essays in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Michigan Quarterly Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Living, and Mobile Bay Monthly.

Poetry:

• Lighting the Furnace Pilot. Peoria, Illinoi: Spoon River Poetry Press, 1980.
• Our Women. Oxford, Mississippi: Abbott House, 1982.
• The Storm Cellar. 1987.
• Circling. Dallas: Browder Springs Press, 1996.

Ruffin has published more than 500 poems in magazines and journals, including the following:

Alaska Quarterly Review, California Quarterly, Connecticut Poetry Review, Georgia Review, Hawaii Review, Illinois Quarterly, Kansas Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Mid-American Review, Midwest Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Nebraska Review, New England Review, New Jersey Poetry Journal, New Mexico Humanities Review, New Orleans Review, North Atlantic Review, Northeast Journal, Ohio Journal, Pennsylvania Review, Quarterly West, South Carolina Review, Southern Review, Southwestern Review, Vanderbilt Review, Wascana Review, Windsor Review, Wisconsin Review.

Ruffin's poetry also has appeared in the following anthologies and textbooks:

• Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry (Monitor Books), in ten volumes (years)
• Discoveries in Literature (Scott-Foresman)
• Going Over to Your Place (Bradbury Press)
• Introduction to Literature (Little, Brown)
• Introduction to Poetry (Little, Brown)
• Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth (University Press of Mississippi)
• Mississippi Writers: An Anthology (University Press of Mississippi)
• Preposterous: Poems of Youth (Bradbury Press)
• Strings: A Gathering of Family Poems (Bradbury Press)
• Texas in Poetry: A 150-Year Anthology (University of North Texas Press)
• Best Poems (Jamestown Publishers)

Other works edited or partially written by Paul Ruffin:

• The Texas Anthology. Edited by Paul Ruffin and Gene Arnold Rister. Huntsville, Texas: Sam Houston State University Press, 1979.
• Contemporary New England Poetry: A Sampler. Two vols. Edited by Paul Ruffin, George P. Garrett, and X.J. Kennedy. Huntsville, Texas: Texas Review Press, Sam Houston State University, 1987-1988.
• To Come Up Grinning; A Tribute to George Garrett. Edited by Paul Ruffin and Stuart Wright. Huntsville, Texas: The Texas Review, Sam Houston State University, 1989.
• Contemporary Southern Short Fiction: A Sampler. Edited by George P. Garrett and Paul Ruffin. Huntsville, Texas: Texas Review Press, Sam Houston State University, 1990.
• Images of Texas in the Nation. Edited by Terry D. Bilhartz and Paul Ruffin. Huntsville, Texas: Sam Houston State University Press, 1991.
• That's What I Like (About The South), And Other New Southern Stories for the Nineties. Edited by George P. Garrett and Paul Ruffin. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993.
• After the Grapes of Wrath: Essays on John Steinbeck in Honor of Tetsumaro Hayashi. Edited by Donald V. Coers, Paul Ruffin, and Robert J. DeMott. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1995.
• A Goyen Companion: Appreciations of a Writer's Writer. Edited by Brooke Horvath, Irving Malin, and Paul Ruffin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
• So There You Are: The Selected Prose of Glenn Brown, Journalist, by Glenn Brown; edited by Paul Ruffin. Huntsville, Texas: Texas Review Press, 1998.

Bibliography:

Book Reviews and Criticism:

• Geary, Brian. Review of The Man Who Would Be God. Library Journal 118 (December 1993): 179.
• Lawson, Doug. Review of The Man Who Would Be God. Gruene Street 1.2 (Fall 1995).
• Lowell, Susan. "Deep in the Grim Heart of Texas." Review of The Man Who Wold Be God. New York Times Book Review (26 December 1993): 14.
• "Ruffin wins Excellence in Research award." The Office of Public Relations at Sam Houston State University (30 April 1997).
• Wilkens, Mary Frances. Review of The Man Who Would Be God. Booklist 90 (1 December 1993): 677.

Internet Resources

Personal and Professional:

• Paul Ruffin's Home Page. From the English Department at Sam Houston State University.

Publisher and Promotional web sites:

• A Goyen Companion: Appreciations of a Writer's Writer. Information about the book from the publisher.

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