Dennis Covington was born in 1948 and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In college, he studied under American short story writer Peter Taylor at the University of Virginia, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. Covington was drafted upon graduation, and served two years in the U.S. Army before entering the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, whose...
The small Dow A and B conference room bustled with eager students and excited professors who awaited author Dennis Covington’s reading from his renowned, “Salvation on Sand Mountain,” an account detailing his experience with Christian snakehandlers in the Appalachian Mountains. Professor of English John Somerville Jr. invited Covington to speak on Feb. 18 as part...