He earned degrees in art and printmaking at the University of Arkansas, and a degree in art history at Boston University. He taught art history for 20 years. He later taught history at the University of Arkansas for 22 years.

When he was 12, he contracted meningitis and lost much of his hearing.

He was a novelist who set his stories in the fictional town of Stay More, Arkansas. He blended fantasy and realism with Ozark speech and culture, drawing comparisons to William Faulkner. He spent his childhood summers in tiny Drakes Creek, Arkansas, and used it as his inspiration for Stay More.