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My life has spanned a time of great change in my beloved South. My generation proudly claims an agrarian past and, true to that heritage, I spent my early years on a forty-acres-and-a-mule farm in North Alabama. But, like so many sons of the soil, my father got a good union job in the burgeoning industrial South. My lullaby became, not the haunting call of the whip-poor-will, but the clamor and clang of steel being made, sounds that echoed across 1950s Birmingham.

After four good years at Fairfield High School, I messed around for a while but ultimately did the right thing. I enlisted in the Marines and worked my way up to Sergeant Major. During those years, I fought in two wars and earned two degrees from Chapman College. Upon retirement, I came home to the University of Alabama and completed a doctorate.

While an Assistant Professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, I authored several articles for professional journals. Finally, I summoned up enough courage to scratch a lifelong itch—I began writing fiction in earnest. I claim to write stories about strong women, weak preachers, and brave Marines. In Walking Wounded and Wounds That Bind and my other stories, you’ll find all three.

4747 Seminole Circle

Birmingham, AL 35243

(205) 969-2660

harrisjc@bellsouth.net