About - Bull Garlington

HE AM WRITER.

He's been at it for 30-odd years. And we mean odd.

Doesn’t say a word about my early days as a newspaper man.

Christopher “Bull” Garlington (born May 13, 1964) is an American humorist. His first book, The Beat Cop’s Guide to Chicago Eats, with co-author Lt. David Haynes was published by Lake Claremont Press in 2010. He was publicly recognized in 2011 when the Parenting Media Association awarded him for humor column of the year. In 2017, the Oklahoman published an excerpt from his travel memoir, The Full English, calling him “the funniest writer you’ve never heard of.”

Much of Bull’s humor is autobiographical, self-deprecating, and exaggerates true events in the tradition of southern storytellers and humorists. His work centers on his family, his career, travel, and living in Chicago.

Early Life

Bull (his preferred name) was born in Birmingham, AL to Elizabeth (née Whitfield), a bank teller and Richard Bynum Garlington, a Master Plumber (deceased). His mother is an Ordained Minister and the Founder of Hope’s Door, a women’s ministry in Chelsea, AL.

The Garlington family moved from Alabama to Boca Raton, FL in 1965. His father worked as a pipefitter building the launch rigs at NASA along with his grandfather, Paul Woods, and his paternal uncle, David Allen Garlington. He is the oldest of two children. His sister is Helen Michelle and is a Christian Counselor for Hopes Door. Bull is married to Colleen Margaret (née Murphy), who is in-house counsel for a global pharmaceutical manufacturer, whom he met through friends in 1985.

After graduating from West Orange High School, Bull briefly attended college before moving to Orlando after landing a job as a communications clerk for the Orlando Sentinel. In his twenties, Bull left the newspaper to manage a band in Athens, GA then returned to a string of short jobs before working for Xerox Business Systems. During this time, Bull continued to sell freelance features and was the front matter columnist for Florida Magazine, then the back matter writer for Orlando Magazine. He married Colleen in 1992, the year his daughter, Sarah Patrice was born. In 1997 they had Connor Richard Martin.

In 1998, Bull and Colleen moved to Chicago, Il where Bull continued working for XBS. In 1999 he took a job as a manager at Barnes & Noble in Skokie, Il. where he remained until 2005 when he left to be a stay-at-home dad and write.

Career

In 2008, Garlington met Lt. David Haynes with whom he launched an A.M. radio show called The Dave & Chris Show on 1530 WCKG. In 2009, they were approached by venerable regional publisher, Claremont Press, to author The Beat Cop’s Guide to Chicago Eats. In 2009, Bull began writing Death by Children, a blog about parenting which led to a column in Chicago Parent and various parenting magazines across the U.S. The column won awards from the Parenting Media Association including Honorable Mention in 2010, Silver in 2012, and the Gold in 2013 for the best humor column in North American Parenting Magazines. A collection of those columns, Death by Children, was published by Everything Goes Media in 2013 and won the Humor Book of the Year from Foreword Reviews’ independent publisher’s wing, IndieFab.

In 2011, Bull began a blog about a book in his possession, the rare and infamous A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent and Mary Price, published in 1965. Bull meant to cook his way through the book but instead launched it as a pop-up dinner, hosting 18 dinners over two years with dishes pulled directly from the Treasury. In 2015, Bull partnered with Mixologist Lauren Parton, Chef Aram Reed, and photographer Lorenzo Tassone to host the final four dinners, including one at the Prairie Mansion with Victoria Price as the guest of honor.

In 2013, Bull took a job as the Senior Writer and Creative Director for an online real estate service start-up. This experience led Bull to start his own content company, Creative Writer PRO, which he still operates, writing articles and white papers for small businesses, organizations, and publishers.

In 2017, his travel memoir, The Full English, was released by 220 Publishing and was named IndieFab’s humor book of the year, 2017.

In 2017, he started writing the column Analog Attorney for the venerable legal marketing blog, Attorney at Work.

In 2021, with his friend Scott Dayton, Garlington launched All American Whiskey, a website devoted to exploring the people who make, sell, and serve whiskey.

Personal Life

Bull lives in Chicago. He is the founder of various social clubs including The Greater Chicago Astrophysicists & Big Game Hunters Music Appreciation Society, the Buffalo Lodge, and the Marvin Gardens Boat Club.

Associations

The Chicago Writers Association

The Greater Chicago Astrophysicists’ & Big Game Hunter’s Music Appreciation Society

The Author’s Guild

The Marvin Gardens Boat Club

The Skylark Chess Society

The Freelance Union

National Society of Newspaper Columnists

The Grand Masonic Lodge of Illinois

Bibliography