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olemissgrad

Phillip Thompson
Phillip Thompson grew up in Mississippi. A combat veteran, journalist, speechwriter and consultant, he is the author of two novels and one non-fiction book. http://kudzucorner.wordpress.com.
Phillip Thompson

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    Biography

    Phillip Thompson grew up near the east Mississippi town of Columbus, birthplace of Tennessee Williams. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ole Miss before serving in the Marine Corps for 12 years. As a Marine, he served in California and Hawaii, aboard the USS Missouri, and in combat during the Persian Gulf War with the 1st Marine Division. He also spent the better part of two years traversing the island nations of the South Pacific as the lead planner for the 50th Anniversary of World War II in the Pacific. Since leaving the service, he has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Mississippi and Virginia, and his journalistic work has been featured in newspapers across the Deep South and the East Coast. He wrote as a freelancer for Civil War magazine and The Washington Times and worked as a staff cartoonist for 10 years at Marine Corps Times. He has also worked as a defense analyst; media spokesman; consultant; speechwriter and Senate aide. Thompson is the author of two previous novels, "Enemy Within" and "A Simple Murder." His short fiction has appeared in "The Review," the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project. He attended the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference as a fiction writer in 2003, where his short story, "Fishing," which became the basis for "Deep Blood," was critiqued by Tom Franklin and Peter Turchi, among others. He also authored the non-fiction account of his Gulf War experience "Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War." He lives in Virginia.

    Inspiration

    I grew up in a family of storytellers in the Deep South, a land complicated and simple, serene and violent. I grew up in the hometown of Tennessee Williams, listening to Jerry Clower on the radio and reading -- constantly -- in the county library. And always felt the need to write. I don't write because I want to. I write because I have to.

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