I grew up on the U.S.-Canadian border, in Windsor, Ontario. At the age of six, I knew I was going to devote my life to literature. My ambition at the time was simple, but the basic premise has remained the same (i.e., when I grow up, I am going to be a writer). I wrote my first book, “The Dark Book,” a title I ripped off from a prop in a 1980s horror film. The book was a protracted commentary on the end of the world and the reader’s imminent death. In grade school, my teachers encouraged my enthusiasm for writing while also lamenting my choice of subject matter (sports and crime featured prominently). In high school, I sank into the routines of map drawing, overhead copying, video watching, and doodle making that defined the bulk of my classes. Yet I knew I wanted to learn something, so I began reading on my own. I discovered Graham Greene, James Joyce, Henry James, Vladimir Nabokov, Arthur Koestler, Emily Dickinson, and others.

I studied English literature and philosophy at the University of Windsor. I was especially influenced by Tom Dilworth’s courses on British Modernism and Ralph Johnson’s courses on Existentialism and Analytic Philosophy. I moved steadily north, first to Queen’s University in Kingston and then to McGill University in Montreal. When I entered graduate school, I figured, somewhat vaguely, that I would write a thesis about Henry James and philosophy. At McGill, supervised by Peter Gibian, I got into American philosophy and cultural history. I defended my doctoral dissertation, Figures in American Literary Pragmatism, in 2011. The book version of this project, Henry James and the Philosophy of Literary Pragmatism, was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2016. About halfway through my PhD, I went on a creative writing binge. I wrote a couple of novels, all unpublished, and some short stories, one of which appeared in Fiddlehead. I think part of this was a reaction against an unavoidable dry spell—at the time, I wasn’t doing much other writing since I was heavily involved in researching and teaching. I realized that in order to function I need to write at all times—diversely, incessantly, and relentlessly.

After splitting some time between Canada and the UK during my post-PhD years, I have now landed between the two countries. At present, I live in Reykjavík, where I am a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Iceland. In 2020, I self-published a novel set in Iceland entitled Bákn, an Icelandic word associated with large monoliths, systems, and bureaucracies.