Meet Douglas Whynott

Associate Professor Doug Whynott believes that persistence and commitment are key ingredients for success as a writer.

To date, Whynott has published four critically acclaimed and commercially successful nonfiction books, including Giant Bluefin, Following the Bloom: Across America with Migratory Beekeepers, and A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time: Joel White's Last Boat. His book, A Country Practice: Scenes from the Veterinary Life, earned praise from Booklist as "the best introduction to the profession since James Herriot" was optioned for development as a TV series, and was voted on of the ten best nonfiction books of 2004 by New Hampshire public radio.

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The Impossible: Writing, For a Living

Whynott  discovered the potential benefits of a writing career by reading National Geographic as a boy: "In the masthead it said that articles were accepted for generous remuneration. I realized that people traveled the world and wrote for a living. At the same time, I was listening to my grandfather, a Cape Cod sea captain, and began to think that venturing off into unknown areas was a good goal for one's life." He pursued degrees in journalism and anthropology, and earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Never expecting overnight success, Whynott earned a living tuning pianos while devoting no fewer than three hours a day to writing. His first book took 10 years to get published. Meanwhile, he advanced his career by publishing in magazines and teaching writing at Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University.