William Lowell Males was born in 1946 on the wide open prairies of Oklahoma. A serial dodger, Males abandoned the prairie and promise of filling his father’s banking shoes for the prestige of Yale. A columnist for the Yale Daily News, he quit before finishing his senior year to travel in Europe and avoid the draft. On the insistence of his parents, he reluctantly returned to the US to join the Army, receiving training as a medic in Washington, DC. Protesting American involvement in the Vietnam War, Males deserted his post.
William Males moved to Sweden, where he worked briefly at "The Center," a gathering place for American deserters and draft dodgers. He later studied medicine at the University of Gothenburg, but dropped out after three years. Somewhere along the line, Males got married, had three children, and abandoned ship. At least we can say he was consistent.
In 1980, William Males and his second wife bought an old school house in the Swedish outback, converting it into an artist's retreat. Holding an MFA from the low-residency Writing Seminars at Bennington College, Males has been teaching creative writing at the University of Gavle for the past ten years, and has had the honor of having his works published with BBC's World Service, Stand, and Narrative Magazine.
A doting grandfather trying to come to terms with a maverick past, William Males is currently completing a book of memoir Reflections of an American Deserter, based on his life on the prairie, his life in Sweden, and the tangled tumbleweed of memory that rolls between.
