Donald Anderson was born and raised in Rochester, New York. He did his undergraduate work at Hartwick College and received his graduate degrees from the University of Arizona in Tucson. During his four decades at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, he taught literature, composition, creative writing, and theatre. He was also fortunate to direct a variety of playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Noel Coward, Edward Albee, and Eugene Ionesco. His full-length study of playwright Philip Barry, entitled "Shadowed Cocktails," was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2010. In recent years he has published-via CKBooks-the novel "Currencies of August" (2016) and a book for young teens entitled "The Hard-Rock Rooster of Rose-Nose Mound" (2017).