Birmingham-born writer Dennis Covington, a former creative writing professor at UAB and Texas Tech University and author of “Salvation on Sand Mountain” and other books, has died, said his daughters, Ashley and Laura.

Covington died Sunday night in Lubbock, Texas. He was 75. He had been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia in 2020.

“He was a relentlessly curious and deeply engaged writer,” said Curtis Bauer, director of the creative writing program at Texas Tech University. “That’s what he taught – curiosity.”

Covington wrote two young adult novels, “Lizard” and “Lasso the Moon,” but was best known for his non-fiction book, “Salvation on Sand Mountain,” about snake handlers at a church in Alabama.

It was a 1995 finalist for the National Book Award. Covington became so involved with the snake handlers and their worship services during the writing of the book, he took up handling snakes himself.

“He could just relate to people,” said former UAB writing instructor Joey Kennedy, one of Covington’s former students, who went with him to a snake-handling service. “It’s really a book about people. It’s not a book about this mystery of handling snakes. He almost always becomes part of the story. He got level with the people. He was there sharing impressions and dreams of the people, with the people. That’s what made him a really good teacher as well.”

Covington moved to Texas Tech University as a professor of creative writing in 2003 and retired in 2017.

He graduated from Woodlawn High School, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, then served in the U.S. Army from 1970-72. He earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa. He taught English at the College of Wooster in Ohio and at Miles College in Fairfield.

He married his second wife, Vicki Marsh Covington, also a novelist, in 1977, and he taught creative writing at UAB from 1978 to 2003. He and Vicki co-wrote a book in 1999 about their marriage, “Cleaving,” that openly discussed their infidelities. After a controversy, they resigned as deacons from Southside Baptist Church. The couple, who had two daughters and three grandchildren, divorced in 2006.

Covington made about a dozen trips to El Salvador starting in 1983 as a freelance journalist to cover the civil war and on mission trips.

“He was all about the adventure, whatever the adventure was,” said his daughter, Ashley Kuehl.

“When he passed away, he had a smirk on his face; anybody who has ever met my dad knows exactly what I’m talking about,” she said. “When he gets some wild idea, or makes some sort of joke he knows is really funny, he’ll just smirk this half a grin, and that’s how he went. I don’t know what he was seeing – new adventure.”

Covington also wrote “Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream” in 2004, and “Revelation: A Search for Faith in a Violent Religious World” in 2016.

“He was a tender-hearted and earnest person,” said his daughter Laura Covington. “There’s a lot of artifice involved in art, but not with him. He was actually on a spiritual search, for real.”

She believes he found what he was looking for.

“He came back around, every time, to there’s something out there,” said his daughter Laura. “There’s some kind of light, and it’s made of love, and everyone you love is there. He was joyous over that.”

A memorial service will be held May 11 at 2 p.m. at Combest Funeral Home in Lubbock.