Also providing him poetical inspiration is the sport of running, an activity Shumate took up at age forty-three. Since then, he authored a blog about it for the "Clarion-Ledger" in 2012 and won the Mississippi Track Club Master's division in 2009. He has also run several marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2006, 2012, and 2014.
Having graduated in 1985 from the University of Mississippi with a BS de...