Craig McDonald (Photo by David Wood)
Craig McDonald, an English professor at King College, also feels a calling to write. "I don't consider myself to be a writer per se. My identity, I believe, springs from a relationship that God has invited all of us into. But I also believe that writing, like teaching, is a craft that I have been privileged to engage in as part of that calling. The stories I have found interesting to write grow out of tantalizingly brief encounters I have had with characters from my reading and research-like Henryson and Sir Alexander Guthrie from medieval Scotland, or the demon-possessed man and the centurion from the Gospels. In re-imagining events in which these characters participated, I have found myself asking questions about what motivated them to write or fight or preach or whatever. Seeking to find the answers to those questions has been helpful in getting a longer view of things. I keep writing because I continually need to be reminded of that longer view."
McDonald's first book, Among His Personal Effects, is a story based on the medieval Scottish schoolmaster/poet Robert Henryson. He wrote it while a member of the Penheads, a writing group consisting of Tommy Bryant, Andy Simoson, Brandon Story and Chuck Thompson, all fellow faculty members at King College. "Chuck and I still get together to talk about our writing and to read one another's work. And I think this explains part of why I write: the fellowship one finds in the company of others who read and write," he says.
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Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
