Andrew Madigan lived in the Middle East for 8 years researching his novels. He also lived in Tokyo, South Korea, the UK, Okinawa, New York, St. Louis and a small exotic town in Ohio that totally sucked and shall remain nameless.
After (barely) earning the BA in English Literature from the College of William & Mary, Andrew worked as a lifeguard and carpenter. His early career was eclectic: carrying a sandwich board for a sewing store going-out-of-business sale; investigating fraud for a government agency; collating industrial manuals in a warehouse; temping; stand-in and body-double for actor Bill Murray; janitor; Domino's delivery boy; answering phones in the rectory of a Catholic church; direct marketer; substitute high school teacher; waiter; deli factotum; landscaper; swimming instructor; ad (almost-literally) nauseum.
Andrew earned a PhD in American studies from Saint Louis University, after which he taught English grammar, literature, US history, film, sociology, creative writing, Arabic Studies, assorted humanities seminars, technical & business writing, remedial...stuff, communications and public speaking. Basically, everything but American studies, which was what he was qualified to do.
Cleaning toilets turned out to be the perfect training for higher education. Andrew taught for many 16th and 17th rate universities and one community college. He also taught online for several years, which was a great way to get paid for sitting around in your underwear drinking coffee and playing with your computer.
In Al Ain, UAE, Andrew wrote for, and was eventually Senior Editor of, a truly horribly putrid magazine. The stuff they printed wouldn't have been accepted by even the 4th-tier bus station bathroom walls of Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan, maybe. But the experience was made tolerable by all the corruption, lies and mismanagement. It reminded him of academia.
Andrew did a lot of other stuff, too, but he's getting a little bored writing about it. (Not true, actually. He’d love to spend hours telling you wonderful things about himself, but it’s not socially unacceptable and no one would believe him.) He has...worked on (brave but unappreciated) academic and literary journals...skateboarded competitively...thrown up on the rugby pitch...cried in his Speedo at a swim meet...and won several goldfish-eating contests. He totally rocked his Jeopardy! tryout in New York, but was ultimately not accepted for the show after meeting with the producers. His wife says this was because of his immense "charm" (yes, she made quotation mark fingers). Andrew says it was because “they didn't get him." When asked to be "fun and lively" during the audition, he didn't feel like it. "Haven't you ever seen Jeopardy!" he asked the producers of Jeopardy! "The contestants are not fun and lively. They're really quite boring."
N.B.: Just because the title of the show includes an exclamation point (Jeopardy!) doesn't necessarily make it an exciting show.
Andrew was on a game show as a high school student, and he correctly answered several questions pertaining to mathematics, but he wants to make it clear that he was not a mathlete. He feels very uncomfortable with this word. He does enjoy mathematics, puzzles and reference books, but not in a nerdy way. He's a really cool guy.
In 2012, Andrew retired from teaching because he was always just a few months away from getting fired anyway. And he didn't like working with professors and administrators. Not because they were incompetent, pompous, under-intelligent, untrustworthy, ill-groomed, scraggly-bearded and fatuous. No, not at all. It wasn't them. It was him.
Andrew is now a freelance editor and writer (short fiction, longer fiction, journalism, angry screeds that he regrets the next morning). He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife (Maura), three daughters (Annie, Kate, Grace) and a beautiful CD collection (George). He spends his time listening to vinyl, drinking absinthe, reading rock magazines, and doing the Guardian cryptic crossword.
Look for Andrew’s upcoming books: ASH DRIVE, a fictionalized memoir about growing up Catholic and suburban in the 1970s; HOUSE OF MOURNING, HEART OF FOOLS, a mystery/adventure/academic satire set in Al Ain, UAE; OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL AFTER-SCHOOL DETENTION, a book of interconnected short stories about going to child’s prison, I mean Catholic school.
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