Earnshaw, Steven 1962-

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EARNSHAW, Steven 1962-

PERSONAL:

Born January 31, 1962, in England; son of Leslie and Beryl Earnshaw; married Elizabeth Wragg (a nurse); children: Jack. Education: University of Leicester, M.A. (modern literature theory and practice), 1990, Ph.D., 1994; Sheffield Hallam University, M.A. (writing), 2001. Hobbies and other interests: Playing the piano.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Cres., Sheffield S10 2BP, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Leicester, Leicester, England, part-time lecturer, 1990-94; Nene College, Northampton, England, lecturer, 1994-95; Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, England, senior lecturer in English, 1995—.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Jane Dowson) Postmodern Subjects/Postmodern Texts, Rodopi (New York, NY), 1995.

The Direction of Literary Theory: Generations of Meaning, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor) Just Postmodernism, Rodopi (New York, NY), 1997.

The Pub in Literature: England's Altered State, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 2000.

Also author of Postmodern Surroundings, Rodopi (New York, NY).

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Two novels, Triptych and Fabric (tentative title); research on the biblical story of Abraham and on the Great Sheffield Flood.

SIDELIGHTS:

Steven Earnshaw told CA: "Writing The Pub in Literature: England's Altered State was a labor of love. When I realized that no one had put 'literature' and 'the pub' together in a book, I couldn't believe my luck, since it combined two of my favorite interests. Many people thought of the ideas as something of a joke (and, perhaps, continue to do so), but given the centrality of both drinking establishments and literature to English culture, I became obsessed with tracing the representation of inns, alehouses, taverns, and public houses throughout English literary history. One of the joys of researching the book was that friends and colleagues could contribute with examples from literature they knew of, with stories about famous pubs, and with their own thoughts on pub culture. Even though it is an academic book, I wanted to make it fairly accessible to an informed audience; otherwise I felt I would be doing an injustice to the subject matter. I also amassed a lot of information that I couldn't put directly into the book, but which I thought might be of interest to others, and so I set up a Web site to incorporate the material.

"At the moment I am focusing on creative writing rather than academic research. I have completed a novel, Triptych, and am working on the next one,Fabric, which may or may not be about the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864 and the story of Abraham's sacrifice of his son."