2008 Woodie Awards
English professor publishes novel after lifetime of writing
Ashley Edwards
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: College Life
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Babcock, associate professor of English and philosophy and Master of Fine Arts Director, has worked as a ballroom dance instructor, farm hand, weigh-man at a cotton gin, hunting guide, pool table repair mechanic, small business owner, carpenter, free-lance writer and blues drummer, all before finding himself as a professor at Murray State and soon-to-be published author of his first novel, "The King of Gaheena."
"I don't think I ever decided to become a writer," Babcock said. "It was just something that surfaced in me that is just inevitable."
Babcock said he wrote his first short story at age 11 and has always had a passion for reading.
"I think that is a very familiar story," Babcock said. "A lot of writers begin as readers … I was just very excited about what can happen in a book, and the excitement of reading and so fourth just led me to want to write."
Babcock has made his way in literature but he took the long road getting there. He dropped out of college five days after his freshman year began and went to work in the pool table business.
"I was making money, but somehow I felt like I was drying up inside. So, I sold my pool table business and decided to go to college," Babcock said.
Babcock decided to enroll at the University of Massachusetts Amherst at the age of 30 to study creative writing. When he completed his undergraduate degree, Babcock accepted a teaching position at a local boarding school near the area, which he himself had attended.
Babcock then taught at a Massachusetts middle school for three years, while free-lancing for a newspaper and writing fiction. He then decided to return to school to complete his mater's degree.
"I decided to get serious about writing and I went back to the University of Massachusetts and their graduate creative writing program," Babcock said. "Then it became clearer that teaching at the university level was something I wanted to do. It was sort of a gradual unfurling of a career. I didn't have this idea that I wanted to be a teacher until well into my 30s and I didn't become a professor until I was 40."
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