Speaker Biographies

Lee Maynard

Lee Maynard was born and raised in the hardscrabble ridges and hard-packed mountains of West Virginia, an upbringing that darkens and shapes much of his writing. His work has appeared in such publications such as Columbia Review of Literature, Appalachian Heritage, Kestrel, Reader's Digest, The Saturday Review, Rider Magazine, Washington Post, Country America, and The Christian Science Monitor. Maynard gained public and literary attention for his depiction of adolescent life in a rural mining town in his first novel, Crum, and received a Literary Fellowship in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts to complete its sequel, Screaming with the Cannibals.

His new book, The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life, details his journey through 70 years of hard living - from West Virginia, to Mexico, the Arctic Circle, and beyond.

Specializing in the novel, Maynard has taught at many national and regional workshops, including the Appalachian Writers Workshop, SouthWest Writers Workshop, and West Virginia Writers Conference. He has served as Writing Master at Allegheny Echoes.

An avid outdoorsman and conservationist, Maynard is a mountaineer, sea kayaker, skier, and former professional river runner. Currently, Maynard serves as President and CEO of The Storehouse, an independently funded, nonprofit food pantry in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received the 2008 Turquoise Chalice Award to honor his dedication to this organization.

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