He wrote several novels that take place in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado, a composite of towns where he lived in childhood.
In 1965, he went to Turkey as a Peace Corps volunteer. He received conscientious-objector status during the Vietnam War, and worked in a hospital and an orphanage as part of his alternative service.
He taught high-school English in Colorado and Wisconsin, before being hired as an assistant professor at Nebraska Wesleyan. He also taught at Southern Illinois University.