David L. Robbins is an American author and educator. He is also the founder of the James River Writers, co-founder of The Podium Foundation and creator of the Mighty Pen Project veterans’ writing program, in partnership with the Virginia War Memorial.
Background
David L. Robbins was on March 10, 1954, in Richmond, Virginia, the United States, to Sam (a Federal Aviation Agency supervisor/traffic controller) and Carol Glady Jacobson (a teacher/recreation specialist) Robbins. He grew up in Sandston, a small town east of Richmond out by the airport; his father was among the first to sit behind the new radar scope in the air traffic control tower. Both his parents were veterans of World War II. Sam saw action in the Pacific, especially at Pearl Harbor.
Education
In 1976, David graduated with a bachelor's degree in Theater and Speech from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Having little actual theatrical talent, he didn't know what to do for a living. David decided to attend what he calls the "great catch-basin of unfocused over-achievers": law school. He received his Juris Doctorate at William and Mary in 1980.
Career
While waiting for admission in 1981, Robbins began a successful freelance writing career, with the novel Souls to Keep. It didn’t get much attention, but his real breakthrough novel would be published the next year, War of the Rats. He began writing fiction in 1990 and has since published fourteen novels.
He is currently working on the fifteenth, an epic of historical fiction about the founding of the state of Israel, between 1945 and 1948. In 2017, his third stage play was produced, an adaptation of his novel, The End of War. The play premiered on his birthday. His fourth play is The King of Crimes, about the treason trial of Aaron Burr in the United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall's court, debuting in 2018.
Robbins founded the James River Writers, an organization dedicated to supporting professional and aspiring writers. He also co-founded the Podium Foundation, which encourages artistic expression in Richmond's high schools. Robbins also teaches advanced creative writing as a visiting professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University Honors College.
Politics
Robbins described himself as a "Fiscal Republican, social Democrat."
Personality
Robbins is an accomplished guitarist, studying the works of James Taylor and Latin classical. At six feet six inches tall, he stays active with his sailboat, shooting sporting clays, weightlifting, and traveling to research his novels.
