David Madden, Author
At 93 years old and with 70 books to his credit, Black Mountain’s David Madden says he has never experienced writer’s block, instead tapping into his memories and combining that rich material with his knowledge of the techniques needed to bring projects to fruition. His books of various genres cover all of his life, from childhood to the present. The Robert Penn Warren Professor Emeritus at Louisiana State University, he taught creative writing for almost 60 years.
“My Creative Year in the Army is very much about the creative process within a series of conflicts with the military,” he says. “My emotions, imagination and intellect have revisited this time in my life—which included a year of service in Alaska—only ten years since I got discharged, with episodes depicted in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays published now and then. It has been a time of constant creative activities.”
Madden says that he consciously cultivates his memory, comparing it to an “ever-flowing stream” he wades into for his writings. “I have recently signed a contract for a new novel, It All Came Together in Paris, and I have two other works of fiction and nonfiction well underway as I continue to ride the crest of a great wave of creative energy,” he says.
My Creative Year in the Army, August 2026, memoir, paperback $24.95, e-book $19.95, by David Madden, and published by University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN. Learn more at DavidMadden.net.
