Paul was born in Philadelphia in 1957, the youngest of five children. In 1962 his family moved to the small town of Westerville, Ohio. He attended parochial and public schools in Westerville and Columbus, followed by four years at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1979. In 1981 he moved to Seattle with former Kenyonite Ann Riemer. They married in 1984 and have two sons, Colin (born 1986) and Peter (born 1993), both fine musicians and all-around rascals. The family dog is Geoffrey, a miniature poodle who can both talk and fly. They still live in Seattle. Paul has been a storyteller since childhood, but it was not until the 1990s that he began serious study of the writing craft. In 1995 he entered the Program For Writers at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. He received his MFA in 1998. His first published story appeared in Rosebud magazine in 1995. His work has appeared in a number of literary journals, among them Glimmer Train, Ballyhoo! Stories, The Red Rock Review, Paperstreet, Short Story, the Southern Indiana Review and Harpur Palate. He has been the lucky winner of several national literary awards including the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award, the John Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction and the Asheville Writers' Workshop Award. His first novel, Houdini Pie, was completed in 2007. He has two more novels underway. |
Biography
Paul in Philadelphia, 1961
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