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Wayne Greenhaw

"Born in North Alabama in 1940, Wayne Greenhaw began writing as a teenager after his family moved to Tuscaloosa in the early 1950s. Greenhaw suffered polio as a baby and, at age fourteen, he underwent surgery to correct scoliosis of the spine. While confined to the bed in a bodycast the boy read voraciously.

At age eighteen, after graduating from Tuscaloosa High School, he traveled to Mexico by train to study at the Instituto Allende at San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, an experience he describes in his book MY HEART IS IN THE EARTH: True Stories of Alabama and Mexico.

Returning to Alabama, he studied at the University of Alabama under creative writing professor Hudson Strode, whose literary style and teaching techniques Greenhaw describes in his autobiographical essay, Learning to swim, in the newly published anthology, THE REMEMBERED GATE: Memoirs by Alabama Authors, edited by Jay Lamar and Jeanie Thompson and published by The University of Alabama Press."

"Greenhaw writes book reviews regularly for The Montgomery Advertiser, The Montgomery Independent, First Draft: The Journal of the Alabama Writers Forum and the internet magazines SouthernScribe, The Spook, and Foreword.

He has published several hundred articles in regional, national and international publications, including The New York Times, Sojourns, Travel Holiday, Reader's Digest, Atlanta, Politics Today, Music City News and others. He organized and wrote the Alabama section for Fodor's Guide to the South and contributed six chapters to Nelles German Guide to Mexico, published in German, English, Spanish and a half-dozen other languages. He is a member of Mexico Writers Alliance, an organization of professional journalists who focus on travel writing about Mexico. In 1995, the Southeast Tourism Society honored Greenhaw with a Shining Example Award as Travel Writer of the Year.

A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1972-73 while a reporter for The Alabama Journal in Montgomery, Greenhaw concentrated studies in American political history and race relations. From 1984 through 1988 he was editor and publisher of ALABAMA Magazine, a regional publication reporting on the political, financial and lifestyle scene. For his overall performance as a journalist he was honored with the Hector Award by the Hall School of Journalism at Troy State University.

Educated at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, he graduated in 1966 with a BS in English, attended the Instituto Allande in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City College and received a certificate for completing graduate studies as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He and another Nieman Fellow conducted a seminar at the Kennedy Institute of Politics in Southern politics during the spring of 1973.

Governor Jim Folsom appointed Greenhaw director of the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel in May of 1993. He served until January of 1995. During that time, the Bureau won numerous awards, including recognition by the National Conference of Travel Directors of its theme Stars Fell on Alabama in radio commercials made by singer Hoyt Axton.

In the fall of 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed Greenhaw as a special President's representative to the White House Conference on Tourism in Washington D.C.

Lieutenant Governor Don Siegelman named Greenhaw co-chairman of his Task Force on Tourism. In 1996, Lt. Gov. Siegelman appointed Greenhaw to the advisory committee of the Alabama Film Commission.

In December of 2000, Governor Don Siegelman appointed Greenhaw to the board of directors of the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

In the spring of 2001, Greenhaw was inducted into the Office of Student Media Hall of Fame at the University of Alabama.

Greenhaw has taught journalism at Troy State University and Alabama State University. He also taught journalism and creative writing at Auburn University at Montgomery. Through the Alabama Arts Council he conducted a creative writing program at the Maxwell Air Force Base Federal Prison. In the fall of 2000 he taught a course in creative non-fiction at Huntingdon College. He has read, lectured and conducted workshops at numerous writers conferences, including Writing Today at Birmingham Southern College and the Alabama Writers Symposium at Alabama Southern Community College at Monroeville. In 2001 he participated in Writers on the Brink conference at Jacksonville State University." (Author's Website)

Bibliography:
Alabama: A State Of Mind
Alabama On My Mind
Alabama: Portrait Of A State
Beyond The Night
Elephants In The Cottonfields
Flying High
The Golfer
King Of Country
The Long Journey
Montgomery: Center Stage In The South
Montgomery: The Biography Of A City
Montgomery: The River City
My Heart Is In The Earth
Tombigbee And Other Stories
Watch Out For George Wallace

Author's Website:
http://www.waynegreenhaw.com/

Last Updated:
26 March 2003

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