My freshman English professor at Kent State University in 1984 told me I was a good writer, and she loved all the silly pictures I drew in my notebook. She said I should try writing children's books, and so I did.

I went to Appalachian State University, which was very bluegrass- and folk-oriented.

For my undergraduate work, I went to Oklahoma State University and graduated from there in 1977.

I went to a little liberal-arts college in Missouri called Truman State University.

When Delaware State University was founded in 1890, it was not by choice, but by social reality.

I worry that people think you have to go to a university to be a good writer, which is categorically untrue. I don't think I learned how to write at Oxford. I did not go to any creative writing classes or anything.