Ep 225 Writing as a Redemptive Act with Award-Winning Author, Bret Lott

Bret Lott knows how to make a woman cry. Possibly a man, too, but I'm not sure. I know he's cried (sobbed, he admitted) when reading Leif Enger's book, Peace Like a River. I already liked Bret Lott but that made me like him even more.
Bret Lott, award-winning author of now 16 books (both fiction and non-fiction) didn't start out to become a writer and, in fact, met obstacles along the way. I'm glad he persevered; if you've read Jewel, one of Oprah's Book Club selections, then I'm sure you're glad as well. He wanted to ride a horse and be a Park Ranger. Grateful that didn't pan out.
Born in Los Angeles in 1958, Lott grew up in Buena Park, CA and Phoenix, AZ before returning to California to live in Huntington Beach, CA. He met and married his wife of 40 years, Melanie Swank Lott, at First Baptist Church of Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley. A graduate of Cal State, Long Beach(1981), Lott headed to Massachusetts for graduate school at UMass Amhurst. He received his MFA in 1984 and landed his first teaching position at Ohio State Univ. In 1986, Lott joined the English Department at the College of Charleston, where he is now a tenured professor and director of the new MFA program and leads writers retreats to Italy.
Find out more about his writing retreats here: bretlottwriting.com