Fred Carlisle lived in Michigan for twenty years, raising a young family and teaching at Michigan State University. He enjoyed a long academic career as a professor of Englishand then as a university provost first at Miami University and then at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Carlisle has written literary criticism—studies of Walt Whitman and Loren Eiseley—and three memoirs. His most recent book is "Hollow and Home: A Story of Self and Place." Carlisle grew up in Ohio, and has also lived in Florida and rural Virginia. He now lives with his wife, Beth, on her family farm in the Virginia mountains.