HAYGOOD, Wil 1954-

PERSONAL: Born September 19, 1954, in Columbus, OH; son of Ralph (an automotive mechanic) and Elvira (a cook; maiden name, Burke) Haygood. Education: Miami University of Ohio, B.A., 1976. Religion: Baptist.

ADDRESSES: Home—26 Suffolk St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Offıce—Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02107. Agent—Esther Newberg, International Creative Management, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Call and Post, Columbus, OH, reporter, 1977-78; Community Information and Referral, hotline operator, 1978-79; R. H. Macy's, New York, NY, retail manager, 1980-82; Charleston Gazette, Charleston, WV, copy editor, 1982-84; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, PA, reporter, 1984-85; Boston Globe, Boston, MA, writer, beginning 1985.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Headliner Award, National Headliners Club, 1986, for outstanding feature writing; fellow of Alicia Patterson Foundation, 1988; New England Associated Press Award, 1990; International Reporting Award, National Association of Black Journalists, 1990; Sunday Magazine Editors Association Award for profile writing, 1993; D.H.L. from Ohio Dominican College, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Two on the River, photographs by Stand Grossfield, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986.

King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam ClaytonPowell, Jr., Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1993.

The Haygoods of Columbus: A Love Story, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., Knopf (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of articles to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: Wil Haygood once told CA: "I'm lucky in a way, inasmuch as I came to writing and journalism with experience of life itself, grit and woe: I had worked as a dishwasher in Brooklyn, a hotline telephone operator in Columbus, Ohio, a retail manager at Macy's department store, and a university typist. I didn't know I wanted to write until I decided I cared to do nothing else except write. I am a trained journalist, lucky enough to have reported for the Boston Globe from across most of America and many foreign countries.

"If there is a weed that grows through and underneath my work, I like to think it is a concern for the unknown stories, the lost stories, the stories in the back country. In my first book, I explored forgotten towns along the Mississippi River; in my second book, a forgotten New York politician. My third book is about the Midwest and a family farm in Georgia, about the history of the two places and the hidden and obvious growth of a family."*