D S Lliteras

Early life

Lliteras was born in the Bronx, New York on July 13, 1949 to Serafin (Frank) and America (Mecca) Lliteras. Originally from Puerto Rico, his father received a bachelor's degree from Emory University (LaGuardia Aeronautical School) in aircraft design in 1959 and worked as a postal clerk for the U.S. Postal Service until his retirement in 1971. His mother, also from Puerto Rico, received her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Miami in 1965 and worked for the state of Florida until her retirement in 1991 as the Rehabilitation Nurse Supervisor of Dade and Monroe County, Florida Workers' Compensation.

Lliteras attended St. Athanasius in the South Bronx until 1959 at which time his family relocated to Miami, Florida. His interest in the theater was sparked by Robin Werner, a teacher at Riviera Junior High School, who encouraged him to join the cast of the University of Miami Shakespeare Festival, where he served as a member during the summers of 1964 and 1965. He graduated from Southwest Miami High School in 1967. During his teen years, Lliteras worked evenings as an orderly at Baptist Hospital. His extra-curricular activities included wrestling, track, and gymnastics. He was offered a gymnastics scholarship to the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy, but instead enlisted in the U. S. Navy and volunteered for Medical Service Duty (Hospital Corpsman).

Vietnam

After completing Navy basic training and the U.S. Naval Hospital Corps School in Great Lakes, Illinois, he served aboard the USS Canopus (AS-34), home-ported in Rota, Spain from February 1968 to June 1968. He attended Field Medical Service School in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in June and July 1968. In May 1969, he was ordered to the First Marine Division, FMF, Vietnam. Upon arrival in Vietnam in July 1969, he volunteered to join the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, First Marine Division, where he served as a combat corpsman and diver until July 1970. Midway through his tour, he attended diver training in Subic Bay, Philippines. During his tour in Vietnam, Lliteras participated in twenty long-range reconnaissance patrols deep within enemy-held territory. He also participated in eighty combat dives, eighty bridge checks, three river sweeps, five body recoveries, and three weapons recoveries. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal (with combat “V”).

Education and employment

After his discharge from the Navy, Lliteras attended Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida on the GI bill, majoring in theater. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973. Upon being awarded an assistantship at the School of Theater Publicity Department, he entered the Masters of Fine Arts program at Florida State University School of Theatre. A member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society, he graduated in 1976 with a Masters of Fine Arts in directing. Afterward, he briefly served on the faculty, where he taught courses in Acting, Directing, and Shakespeare Styles.

Theater

Among his acting credits while at Florida State, Lliteras’s signature achievement was starring in the title role in Lenny Bruce. His directing credits included Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams and Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson. His one-act play Touch won a Christian Theater Artists Guild award and was also produced while at Florida State in 1975. Lliteras also studied mime under Chuck Metcalf, playwrighting under Mark Berman, and directing under Amnon Kabatchnik. Lliteras’s professional credits include directing Steambath at the Reunion Theatre in Houston, Texas in 1973 and Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm for the New York Theatre Ensemble in 1977.

Maritime and firefighting

In 1979, Lliteras was admitted into the U. S. Merchant Marines' Calhoun MEBA Engineering School in Baltimore, Maryland and subsequently served aboard the SS Edgar M. Queeny. In 1980, he taught at Rutledge College (now University of South Carolina) in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a proprietary business school. In 1981, he earned a commission in the U.S. Navy and became a Deep Sea Diving and Salvage officer. He attended the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida in September 1981, and later served aboard the USS Preserver, sailing from Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia. In 1985, he resigned his commission to become a firefighter for the city of Norfolk, graduating academically at the top of his firefighting class in 1986. He received the Medal of Honor from the Norfolk Fire and Paramedical Services in February, 1998 for exceptional action in the line of duty in the saving of life and retired in 2000 after suffering a heart attack on a fire scene.

Written works

Lliteras’s Haiku, poetry, and short stories have appeared in many national and international journals and anthologies. His first book publication, In a Warrior’s Romance (1991), includes Haiku and photographs reflecting his experiences in Vietnam. A source of its originality stems from it being the first major application of Haiku to the subject of war. His first three novels, collectively known as the Llewellen Trilogy, trace the spiritual journey of Robert Llewellen, a man who learns how to escape, not from life, but into life. The trilogy includes In the Heart of Things (1992), Into the Ashes (1993), and Half Hidden by Twilight (1994). In his novel 613 West Jefferson (2001), Lliteras revisited the theme of Vietnam through the character of Richard Santos, a returning veteran who encounters fringe elements of the counter-culture in a north Florida town.

Lliteras is best known for his biblical novels, which include The Thieves of Golgotha (1998), Judas the Gentile (1999), Jerusalem’s Rain (2003), The Silence of John (2005), and The Master of Secrets (2007).

A book about his firefighting experiences, Flames and Smoke Visible: A Fire Fighter’s Tale, was published in 2012.

In 2015, his novel entitled Viet Man was published.

Personal life

In 1971, Lliteras married Kathleen Touchstone, a retired educator and author of numerous scholarly works. She dedicated her book, Then Athena Said: Unilateral Transfers and the Transformation of Objectivist Ethics, to her husband.

Books

Selected poetry periodicals

Poetry anthologies

Short story anthologies and periodicals