Devido, Brian A. 1971-

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Devido, Brian A. 1971-

PERSONAL:

Born July 23, 1971, in Princeton, NJ; son of Gregory (a purchasing manager) and Pauline (a homemaker) DeVido; married Sarah Kelly (a scientist), April 16, 2005. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, B.A., 1993; University of North Carolina at Wilmington, M.F.A., 2001. Religion: Christian. Hobbies and other interests: Scuba diving, travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Petersburg, FL. Office—Walton Management Services, Inc., 8484 Georgia Ave., Ste. 330, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Agent—Robert Lescher, Lescher & Lescher Ltd., 47 E. 19th St., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA, sportswriter, 1992-94; San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, TX, sportswriter, 1994-96; Teksystems, Inc., Austin, TX, senior account executive, 1995-99; Walton Management Services, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, director of sales, 2002—.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Authors League of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Virginia Golden Gloves heavyweight boxing champion, 1994.

WRITINGS:

Every Time I Talk to Liston (novel), Bloomsbury USA (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brian A. DeVido told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is simply to communicate with readers. My goal is to have a book in circulation that a reader ideally wants to go back and read more than once, which is what I do with books that really connect with me. I was inspired to write about boxing for my first novel—and Sonny Liston in particular—because I have always been a big fight fan, as well as a participant. I boxed in the Golden Gloves for two years while I was in college. Sonny Liston was of particular interest after I read a moving Sports Illustrated article on him by William Nack.

"A particular influence on my work has been the late sportswriter and essayist Ralph Wiley. He wrote a number of sports and nonsports essays and articles that are very important to both racial issues and larger cultural issues. Also of influence have been Ralph Ellison, Stephen Crane, and more contemporary writers such as Elwood Reid, Richard Price, and John Ed Bradley. Studying journalism at Virginia Tech helped lead me down the path to sports writing for a few years, then going back to graduate school at the age of twenty-eight to study fiction writing helped me find my voice in the realm of novels.

"Currently I am at work on a new project involving the world of college football recruiting, and I have a number of other nonsports-related topics that I am planning on writing about in the coming years. While sports remains a passion of mine, I have a number of ideas outside the sports world that I would like to pursue."