Bill Svelmoe

I grew up in the jungle, in a house on stilts, with a grass roof, inhabited by far more rats, bats, bugs, snakes, etc. than human beings. My parents were evangelical Protestant missionaries, and I was along for the ride. I was eight months old when my parents went to the Philippines with the Wycliffe Bible Translators and 17 when I returned to California to begin college.

I loved my life. Missionaries were fun to grow up with. They have an adventurous spirit. They tended to let their kids do wild things. They had great senses of humor, at least most of them did. They weren’t all real smart, but then neither are all of us. Some were very smart. And a few, well let’s just say the jungle got to them. Demon possessed, my parents thought. Out there on the frontier normal rules don’t apply. Just ask Kurtz.

Today I teach American history at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. My specialty is American religious history. In my academic work, I write about missionaries, evangelicals, Pentecostals, Catholics, etc. I also tend to write about religious folk in my fiction, although not exclusively. But my first novel is set on a mission center in the Philippines.

While I am no longer a part of the evangelical community, I still follow it closely. I have a Facebook site called "From the Edge of the Tent," so named because I like to linger at the edge of the tent and peek under from time to time to see what's going on with my old friends. Usually I don't need to peek, because I can hear them carrying on from the parking lot. I'll post a few blogs which might help explain some of this.

My passions these days are teaching college kids, writing fiction, and performing with incredibly talented local actors and directors at several of our area theaters. I also like hanging out on our new deck with Lisa. She built it. She's an artist. There's nothing like a warm summer day on the deck enjoying a cool drink with friends ...