More About the Author
Horace Mungin was born in Hollywood, South Carolina in 1941. He grew up in New York City where he attended public schools, and majored in English at Fordham University. He served three years in the U.S. Army and was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. He lived in New York until 1989.
Horace started writing poetry in the late sixties, just after the genesis of the National Black Arts Movement. During this period, he published two Broadside volumes of poetry, "Dope Hustler's Jazz, '68" and "Now See Here, Homes, '69." Some of his early writings appeared in The New York Times, literary magazines, and poetry anthologies. The African-American Book Club, Inc. selected Horace as its Artist of the Month in June of 1969. Later that same year, he published a collection of short fiction. In the early seventies, Horace helped found Black Forum Magazine, a widely acclaimed, national publication for writers. Horace also edited Press-Time, a literary newsletter until 1984.
In the late seventies, Horace wrote a column for a Charleston, SC weekly newspaper. The column employed satire to explore a variety of political and social issues.
The column was discontinued for a while then syndicated to ten other weekly newspapers and had a six year run. In 1991 a collection of those columns were published under the title "Sleepy Willie Talks about Life." In May of 2001, "Sleepy Willie Sings the Blues," the second book in the Sleepy Willie series was published. Horace wants to write one more Sleepy Willie book to complete the series. In 2004, the author published "The Devil Beats His Wife," a collection of short stories rooted in the Charleston, South Carolina area. In 2006 "San Juan Hill" a fictional coming of age memoir of three young boys growing up in a New York City public housing project was published. His latest book is "Subway; After the Irish," an account of his years as a New York City Subway conductor.
Horace has published in Essence magazine, Encore newsmagazine, Black Books Bulletin, Disc & That, The Lincoln Review, Blind Beggar Press, Ninety-Six Sampler of South Carolina Poetry, the Point newspaper, Nommo, Black Out Loud and The New York Times. Horace Mungin is listed in the S. C. Writers Directory and the Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. He has read his works at the New School for Social Research, Furman University, Moja Arts Festival, and Piccolo Spoleto. His short fiction has won the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open two years running ('01, '02).
Horace and his wife, Gussie, live in Ridgeville, SC. He is contemplating another collection of Southern based short fiction as his next project. They have three sons and six grandchildren.
