Larry Eugene Meredith was born June 27, 1941 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied commercial art for two years with the aim of becoming a cartoonist. After high school he took a diploma in Operation, Programming and Wiring of IBM TAB Equipment and another in Short Fiction Writing. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia majoring in Sociology and English, Camden County College majoring in System Analysis and Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania majoring in Accounting and Finance. He has also received an Information Processing Systems certificate from the University of Delaware as well as further certification from various teaching organizations in Communication, Project Management, Computer Programming, Hospital Costing, people-training and counseling skills.
His published output spanning six decades has included stories, plays, poems, songs, speeches, essays, criticism and photographs. None of this, of course, has earned him worldwide critical acclaim (although he does have a small, but loyal following). Sad to say, his only prize was in the Writer’s Digest Short Story Contest in 1961. (He does have a mention in the Speculative Fiction Writers Encyclopedia and the International Science Fiction Database. Sorry, haven’t made Wikipedia yet.) He seems to have been oddly overlooked by the Pulitzer Prize Committee, certainly just an oversight on their part. His first publically published work was the song, “My Little White Lamb”, recorded on Ronnie Records by Ben Tate (1957) and destined for immediate obscurity [both song and singer]. He performed as a standup comic, DJ and actor in the late 1950s and somehow escaped public humiliation. In the 1960’s he was a feature writer for Philadelphia After Dark, regularly published in such horror and fantasy publications as “Magazine of Horror” and “Startling Mystery Tales” and a writer in the Underground Press of those times. Since then his work has appeared in various magazines including “The Communicator”, “Animal Lovers Magazine”, “Media & Methods”, “Psychedelphia Period”, “Personal Poetry”, “Dining & Entertainment”, “Mobius”, “Writer’s Journal”, “Wanderings” and “Philadelphia Stories” among others. He was also facilitator of a Creative Writers Group (2003), a featured poet at venues in Delaware (2003 & 2004) and read his work at Barnes & Noble Read-a-Loud and Delaware Literary Alliance events as well as other public readings, especially at Second Saturday Poetry events. Selective samples of his work have appeared in six anthologies in both the United States and Europe (La Chica de Marte y othros relatos [1968], Dance of the Muse [1970], Histories D’Objects Malefigues [1975], Poems to Save the World [1998], Reflections of Spring [2001] and Prints [2004].
He has also worked in various industries: refining, publishing, food processing, steel fabrication, hospital administration, banking, printing, medical research and retail, and his changes were by choice, not because he couldn’t hold a job, just so you know.
Larry lives in Delaware with his wife. They’ve been married longer than most people have been alive. They have three grown children and several cats.
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