Editor for two decades at Macmillan Publishing and Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich, New York City. Co-founder of Southern Writers Literary Agency, New Orleans. Journalist for a dozen years covering, among other things, British publishing and religious publishing for the trade journal Publishers Weekly. Book Reviewer for the LA Times, SF Chronicle, NO Times-Picayune; Commonweal, America, Christianity Today, Publishers Weekly, Bookstore Journal, Catholic Twin Circle, National Catholic Reporter.
Author of a major biography of C. S. Lewis, a major study of his spirituality for Mere Christians, four novels, half a dozen short stories, a dozen plays, and, alas, one poem. Anthologist of the works of Billy Graham, C.S. Lewis, J.B. Phillips, Dorothy L. Sayers, Fulton J. Sheen, G.K. Chesterton. Ghost writer of a book on the Shroud of Turin and freelance editor of Just as I Am: The Memoirs of Billy Graham. Co-author, with Emilie Griffin, of His Holiness Pope John Paul II Visits the City of New Orleans.
Translator from Latin to English of major works by Thomas à Kempis and Augustine of Hippo. Translator from Korean to English, with Emilie Griffin, of two classic works by Joshua Choonmin Kang. Originator of Verbum Diurnum, a Latin Word-for-the-Day on the Internet.
Boston College High School; B.A., Boston College; M.A., Catholic University. Member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) for 8 years. Married to Emilie Dietrich Griffin; father of Lucy, Henry, and Sarah; grandfather of Ardis and Avery Sikes.
Quondam Memberships. Knight, Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Catholic Commission on Intellectual & Cultural Affairs. American Literary Translators Association. Louisiana Historical Association. Chrysostom Society (Christian writers’ group). Ancient & Honourable Company of Anglo-American Fusiliers, 1812, “Clio’s Own” (co-founder of group devoted to writing on the War of 1812; reenactor, Sir Alexander Forester Inglis Cochrane, R.N., K.B., Vice Admiral of the Ocean White, Commander in Chief of the North American Station, Bermuda). Prytania Street Irregulars (writers’ group). Men’s Hut (gentlemen’s reading society).
Board Memberships. Alexandria (LA) Museum of Art; Spectral Sisters (Alexandria community theater group); Warm Jam Club (founder and sole member).
Bibliography
NOVELS
2011 Dill of the Nile: The Wise Man Who Arrived Early (Author House).
1989 Carnage at Christhaven: A Serial Mystery Novel by WG and other members of the Chrysostom Society; conceived, edited, and with the first chapter by WG (Harper San Francisco).
1989 The Fleetwood Correspondence: An Epistolary Novel (Doubleday, US; Hodder & Stoughton, UK).
TRANSLATIONS
2010 Scripture by Heart: Devotional Practices for Memorizing God’s Word by Joshua Choonmin Kang, with Emilie Griffin (IVP). From the Korean.
2007 Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Transformation by Joshua Choonmin Kang, with Emilie Griffin (IVP). From the Korean.
2005 Meeting the Master in the Garden by Thomas à Kempis (Crossroad Carlisle). From the Latin.
2004 Consolations for My Soul by Thomas à Kempis (Crossroad Carlisle). From the Latin.
2002 Christmas, New Year, Epiphany Sermons by Augustine of Hippo (Doubleday Image). From the Latin.
2000 The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (Harper San Francisco). From the Latin.
ANTHOLOGIES
2003 Gilbert Keith Chesterton (Orbis;,Modern Spiritual Master Series).
1979 Endtime: The Doomsday Catalog (Macmillan).
The Blankety Blank Christian Series conceived & edited by WG
1994 The Faithful Christian: 100 Readings by Billy Graham (McCracken).
1983 The Martyred Christian: 160 Readings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Macmillan).
1981 The Visionary Christian: 131 Readings from the Fiction of C.S. Lewis (Macmillan).
1979 The Electronic Christian: 105 Readings from Fulton J. Sheen (Macmillan).
1978 The Whimsical Christian: 18 Essays by Dorothy L. Sayers (Macmillan).
1978 The Newborn Christian: 114 Readings from J.B. Phillips (Macmillan).
1977 The Joyful Christian: 127 Readings from C.S. Lewis (Macmillan).
1975 The Desert Christian: Sayings, Alphabetical Collection (Macmillan).
NONFICTION
1998 C.S. Lewis, Spirituality for Mere Christians (Crossroad, Spiritual Legacy Series; 2007, Wipf & Stock).
1987 His Holiness Pope John Paul II Visits the City of New Orleans, with Emilie Griffin (Archdiocese of New Orleans).
POETRY
2006 “My First and Indeed My Last: A Poem in 12 Fits or Starts” (Stonework: The Houghton College Online Journal ) .
EDITING / GHOSTING
2010 Resurrection Fern: Tales of a Dominican Friar by Val A. McInnes, O.P., with Emilie Griffin (Southern Dominican Books).
1997 Just as I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham, edited by WG (Harper San Francisco; London; etc.).
1977 The Shroud by Robert K. Wilcox; ghosted by WG (Macmillan, Bantam; Dusseldorf & Wien, Econ Verlag; Athens, Eptalofos; Tokyo, Sanp_; Helsinki, Kuva Ja Sona; Barcelona, Editorial Romaine).
SHORT STORIES
1995 “Show Me Something—A Story” (Critic).
1994 “Morning Prayer—A Story” (Image).
1993 “Reason for the Season—A Story” (New Laurel Review).
BIOGRAPHY
1986 Clive Staples Lewis: A Dramatic Life (Harper San Francisco, US; 1988, 2005. Lion UK, as C. S. Lewis, The Authentic Voice).
JUVENILE
1993 “Hopkins Skipkins & Jumpkins—A Children’s Story,” Once Upon a Christmas (C.R. Gibson). A Chrysostom Book.
1985 Jesus For Children (Harper San Francisco; 1994, Twenty-Third Publications).
CHAPTERS
2010 “Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador, How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth (Pelican).
2008 “Babylon, Babel, Babble: On Translation,” A Syllable of Water (Paraclete). A Chrysostom Book.
2007 “6:40 A.M.,” Louisiana in Words (Pelican).
2004 “Litanies.” Awake My Soul: Contemporary Catholics on Traditional Devotions. Edited by James Martin, S.J. (Loyola Press, Chicago).
1992 “Holy Innocents” and “All Saints,” Stories for the Christian Year; a Chrysostom book (Macmillan). Reissued in 2003 as Epiphanies (Baker),
1992 “Scholar Pilgrim: C.S. Lewis,” More Than Conquerors (Moody).
1990 “William Shakespeare: The Sweetest Prince of Them All,” Reality and the Vision (Word; 1994, McCracken Press; 2002, Baker). A Chrysostom book
ARTICLES
2008 “Figures in the Fog: Thomas à Kempis on Discernment,” Conversations.
2008 “Five Intertestamental Beauties,” Books & Culture.
2007 “A Pious Proposal: The F-Word vs. the J-Word,” Christian Ethics Today.
2002 “In Praise of Paraphrase,” Books & Culture.
2002 “Remembering My Mother.” The Church Today.
2001 “Unintended Consequences,” Image.
2000 “Graceful Words,” The Lutheran.
1996 “Remembering My Father,” Catholic Twin Circle.
1995 “The All-Time All Saints Quiz,” Catholic Twin Circle.
1991 “Decision at M’sieur Chalmette’s: The Necessity of Battle Reconsidered.” Cultural Vistas, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
1986 “Beer, Beowulf, and the English Literature Syllabus, 1936,” Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society.
1984 “Touring the American Soul,” The Classics of American Spirituality.
1981 “Jolly Decent, Jolly Profitable,” Advance Magazine.
1979 “Hopefully,” Endtime: The Doomsday Catalog.
1977 “Hobbits Inhabit Here, Hereafter,” National Catholic Reporter.
JOURNALISM
Sign, 100 play reviews.
Publisher’s Weekly, 150 book reviews, interviews, reportage.
Catholic Twin Circle, 75 book, movie, and play reviews.
PLAYS
2011 “Opposite Number” (Spectral Sisters, Alexandria, LA).
2010 “The Brasserie Bunch” (Spectral Sisters, Alexandria, LA).
2009 “Double Cross” (Spectral Sisters, Alexandria, LA).
2008 “Not a Snowball’s Chance,” (Spectral Sisters, Alexandria, LA).
2007 “Tweedledum & Tweedledee: The Love Story” (Spectral Sisters, Alexandria, LA).
2006 “Isn’t That Always the Question?” (Spectral Sisters, Alexandria, LA).
1972 Campion (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Waterford, CT).
1964 A Fourth for the Eighth (Theatre unknown, Los Angeles, CA).
1962 “The Omega Point” (Circle in the Square, New York, NY).