James Plath is the R. Forrest Colwell Endowed Chair and Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he has taught American literature, creative writing, film, and journalism since 1988.
His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, including The North American Review, Apalachee Quarterly, ACM (Another Chicago Magazine), The Caribbean Writer, Kansas Quarterly, and Spillway. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry—Courbet, on the Rocks (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1994) and Everything Shapes Itself to the Sea (Finishing Line Press, 2017)—and is the author/editor of eight scholarly books, including two on Ernest Hemingway, two on John Updike, and one on The 100 Greatest Literary Characters. Now president of the John Updike Society, he took the lead in restoring the John Updike Childhood Home in Shillington, Pennsylvania and curating exhibits for the museum the Wall Street Journal called “a worthy site of literary pilgrimage.”
Plath is the proud father of six and grandfather of seven—now ten, thanks to a blended family.
Paperback: 74 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (June 3, 2025)