Education: B.A., Tennessee ; M.A., San Francisco State .
Fields: creative writing, short story, poetry, drama, non-fiction, literary and film criticism, the Civil War.
Novels and short story collections: Cassandra Singing (1969, reissued 1999); Sharpshooter (1996); The New Orleans of Possibilities (1982); On The Big Wind (1980); Pleasure-Dome (1979); The Suicide's Wife (1978); Bijou (1974); Brothers in Confidence (1972); The Shadow Knows (1970); The Beautiful Greed (1961).
Critical books: A Pocketful of Prose: Vintage (1995); A Pocketful of Prose: Contemporary (1992); A Pocketful of Poetry (1995); A Pocketful of Plays (1995); Classics of Civil War Fiction (1991); Eight Classic American Novels (1990); A Fiction Tutor (1990); The World of Fiction (1990); Rediscoveries II , co-ed. (1988); Revising Fiction (1988).
Periodical publications: hundreds of short stories, poems, and critical essays; articles, stories and poems reprinted in numerous books.
Drama: ten plays produced and published.
Professional service: President, Popular Culture Association, 1976; Board member, AWP, 1976-78.
Awards and honors: Rockefeller Grant in Fiction, 1969; John Golden Fellowship in Playwriting, Yale Drama School, 1959-60.