Joshua Anderson: Story

My earliest memories have to do with stories. My father read every night to me and my siblings, first from the bible and then from Tolkien or McDonald or Stevenson or Lewis and there are still some stories my internal ear can only hear in his voice. Taught at home, my early education generally consisted of regular trips to the library and spending the rest of the week devouring the loot. I loved stories, both the "real" and made-up kinds, and there are some fictional worlds that were more real than my own. Much of this remains the same. I still see the two to three minutes it takes to brush my teeth and gargle mouthwash as essential reading time, I get nervous if I find myself eating alone with nothing to read, and only rarely can I fall asleep without putting twenty or thirty minutes into whatever book is on the nightstand. I don't know if I lose myself in stories because I can't live in the real story I'm in, or if it's the stories I read that help me to better live in this world. I suspect the latter.

Some details:

I hold a B.A. from the University of Virginia in English Literature with a concentration in Poetry Writing.

I was awarded the 2003 Rachel St. Paul Poetry Prize for best collection of poetry by an undergrad at UVA. Part of the prize was $1000 cash. I spent it on books.

I'm currently a M. Div. student at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

These are some writers whose worlds I like to inhabit: Roger Angell, Annie Dillard, Charles Wright, E.B. White, Marilynne Robinson, Ann Beattie, Franky Schaeffer, Seamus Heaney, C.S. Lewis, Elizabeth Bishop, John Christopher, Gene Wolfe.

These are my guilty pleasures: Curtis Sittenfeld, George Martin, Robert Jordan, J. K. Rowling, Roger O'Brien, John Irving.

I have a blog.

My two favorite people are Ami (wife) and Cael (son).

I am a baptized man.