He was born in Anaheim, California, and raised in Greenwood, South Carolina.
Singleton graduated from Furman University in 1980 with a degree in philosophy and was an inductee into Phi Beta Kappa.
He also holds an MFA degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
[3] In 2013,[4] Singleton accepted the John C. Cobb Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Wofford College, where he taught until 2020.
[6] In 2024, Singleton appeared on the SEC Network television program TrueSouth Presented by YellaWood.