William Rodney Allen is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts

Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts

The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts is located in Natchitoches, Louisiana on the campus of Northwestern State University . It is a member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology .- Background :LSMSA is the brainchild of...

. He received his PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

, and has been a faculty member at LSMSA since the school first opened in 1983. He is married to Cindy Allen, a counselor at the school, and has two daughters, Emily and Claire, with her. He has many interests, which include and are not limited to playing guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, reading

Reading (process)

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...

, and cutting down Magnolia

Magnolia

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....

 trees. He is also a Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...

 fan and owns what is believed to be the last thing that Vonnegut wrote before his death in 2007, a postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

 addressed to Allen.

Works

• Walker Percy: A Southern Wayfarer, University Press of Mississippi, 2006, ISBN 9781934110003
• Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut (Literary conversations series) University Press of Mississippi, 1988, ISBN 9780878053582
• Understanding Kurt Vonnegut (Understanding Contemporary American Literature) (1991)
• The Heath Introduction to Literature (1999)
• The Coen Brothers: Interviews Conversations with Filmmakers Series
  Conversations with Filmmakers Series
  The Conversations with Filmmakers Series is part of the University Press of Mississippi which is sponsored by Mississippi's eight state universities. The mission of the Series is to publish collected interviews with world-famous directors. The current Filmmakers Series editor is Gerald Peary, a...
  
  University Press of Mississippi, 2006, ISBN 9781578068890