Wayne Caldwell

Wayne Caldwell was born in Asheville, NC in the middle of the last century. He grew up in the Sand Hill section of the Enka community, where he remembers the Goat Man, the Beacon Restaurant, and Elsons Drug Store. As a boy, he set up duck pins at the American Enka bowling alley, fished in Enka Lake, and took his first paying job at the Enka Lake Club, making ninety cents an hour. He first became passionate about literature in Miss Laura Douglass Harrells English classes at Enka High School. She introduced him to Thomas Wolfe, among others, and joked with him about writing the Great American Novel. And occasionally threw an eraser at him.

 He has three degrees in English, from UNC-Chapel Hill, Appalachian State, and Duke. In a former life he taught composition and literature at North Carolina Central and Union College (Schenectady NY). Since the mid-seventies he has worked at Ambiance Interiors, the family interior design business in Asheville.

In his spare time he works up firewood.