One-Line Bio
Blog & Web for R. L. Burkhead, MFA
Biography
A Kentucky native and longtime Nashvillian, I have published my journalism, poetry, and prose both online and in traditional print media, but I am perhaps best known as a passionate promoter of the arts throughout middle Tennessee. After earning a MFA in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, I founded The Writer's Loft, a creative writing program at Middle Tennessee State University, as well as created, edited, and published the program's literary journal, The Trunk. Currently, I am working on my novel (my MFA creative thesis) and may be found online at this blog and at http://personalpages.tds.net/~leslieor/index.htm
Years in profession (16), writing/profession-specific degrees (BA in Print Journalism/English and MFA in Creative Writing), scope of technical writing completed (1-online help, 2-national/global intranet site creation/implementation from scratch, 3-magazine/journal editing/publishing, 4-desktop publishing, 5-extensive statewide meeting planning, 6-project planning, and 7-ghostwriting for executive-level leadership),creating teams (by interviewing/hiring full-time workers, college interns, and student workers),and range of industries worked in (financial, medical, higher education, telecommunications, & HVAC):these are the things that differentiate me as a technical writer. And my four years of active duty military service was in cryptography (desktop publishing of classified information), technically bringing my years in profession to 20.
Interests
Hello and Welcome! Welcome to my bit of the World Wide Web. Aspiring fiction writer and accomplished technology writer, my professional writing career has taken me from encrypting classified messages for the military and covering school board meetings for a small county paper to creating global corporate Web sites and moving literature from traditional printing outfits to print-on-demand operations. Oh yeah, and I've done a few other things, as well. The more interesting of these endeavors include selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, coordinating a radio show, working as a house parent at a group home, selling computers and wine at a United States Navy department store in London, and about a million other jobs. Thank you for taking a few moments to visit with me. Please use this site to learn more about my credentials and view some of my writing samples. With warm regards, Roy
