McKain, David W.

Award winning author and educator, McKain grew up in rural Pennsylvannia and attended the University of Connecticut. After a brief stint working for Holt, Rinehart & Winston and McGraw-Hill, McKain returned to the University of Connecticut to pursue his doctorate, which he completed in 1969. McKain is a retired University of Connecticut (at Avery Point) faculty member and he also served as a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989.

David McKain grew up in rural Pennsylvania ( Bradford, PA ), eventually attending the University of Connecticut . After a brief stint working for Holt, Rinehart & Winston and McGraw-Hill, McKain returned to the University of Connecticut to pursue his doctorate, which he completed in 1969. In addition to publication in numerous literary magazines such as Floating Bear, Evergreen Review, and Open Places, David McKain has edited two anthologies and published three volumes of his poetry: In Touch, The Common Life, and Spirit Bodies . While he has focused on poetry, his autobiography Spellbound: Growing Up in God's Country, won critical acclaim upon publication in 1988. Spellbound: Growing Up in God's Country won the Associated Writing Programs Award for Non-fiction in 1987 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In his professional life, McKain has taught at the Avery Point campus of UConn, where he rose to the rank of full professor and was awarded 1983 Alumni Association Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award in 1983. He served as a visiting professor with his wife ( Margaret Gibson ) at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989.

Published Works: (Editor) Christianity: Some Non-Christian Appraisals , Mc-Graw-Hill , 1965 . (Editor) The Whole Earth: Essay in Appreciation, Anger, and Hope , St. Martin's , 1971 . In Touch , Ardis , 1975 . The Common Life , Alice James , 1982 . Spellbound: Growing Up in God's Country , University of Georgia Press , 1988 ; Simon & Schuster , 1990 . Spirit Bodies , Ithaca House , 1990 .