Ralph M. Berry

Emeritus Professor
Creative writing, fiction, modernism, postmodernism, philosophy and literature

R. M. Berry, Professor, Ph.D., MFA Iowa (1985), specializes in twentieth century literature, critical theory, and creative writing (fiction). In 1985, he served as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Tours in France. R. M. Berry is the author of the novels Frank (2005), "an unwriting of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," and Leonardo's Horse, a New York Times "notable book" of 1998. His first collection of short fictions, Plane Geometry and Other Affairs of the Heart, was chosen by Robert Coover as winner of the 1985 Fiction Collective prize, and his second, Dictionary of Modern Anguish (2000), was described by the Buffalo News as "a collection of widely disparate narratives inspired...by the spirit of Ludwig Wittgenstein." Berry's essays on experimental fiction and philosophy have appeared in Symploke, Narrative, Philosophy and Literature, Soundings, American Book Review, Context, and numerous critical anthologies. With Jeffrey Di Leo he has edited the essay collection, Fiction's Present: Situating Narrative Innovation, (SUNY Press: 2007). From 1999 through 2007 he was publisher of Fiction Collective Two. Dr. Berry served as chair of the English Department from 2007-2012.

Books

  • Forms at War: FC2 1999-2009, edited with introduction and notes by R. M. Berry, Tuscaloosa: U. of Alabama P, 2009.
  • Fiction's Present: Situating Narrative Innovation, ed. R. M. Berry and Jeffrey Di Leo, SUNY Press: 2007.
  • Frank (novel), Chiasmus Press, 2005.
  • Dictionary of Modern Anguish(short fiction), Fiction Collective Two, 2000.
  • Leonardo's Horse (novel), Fiction Collective Two, 1997.
  • Plane Geometry and Other Affairs of the Heart (short fiction), Fiction Collective, 1985.

Other Work

  • "Stanley Cavell's Modernism," in Stanley Cavell and Literary Criticism, ed. Andrew Taylor (Manchester UP: forthcoming 2011).
  • "Experimental Writing," in Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, ed. Richard Eldridge (Oxford UP: 2009), 199-220.
  • "War and the Form of Writing," American Book Review (Vol. 28, 6: Sept-Oct 2007), 4.
  • From "Untitled," published in Theory@Buffalo 12 (2008).
  • "The Question of Writing Now: FC2 Responds to Ben Marcus" Symploke (Vol. 14 1-2: 2007), 316-319.
  • "Experimental Writing," Oxford Companion to Philosophy and Literature, ed. Richard Eldridge (forthcoming), 35 pp.
  • "R. M. Berry Answers Joseph Tabbi," American Book Review (Vol. 27, 5: July/August 2006), 37-38.
  • From "Untitled," The Golden Handcuffs Review (Vol. 1, no. 7: Summer-Fall, 2006), 218-230.
  • "Did the Novel Die? (And Would We Know?)," Rain Taxi (Vol. 11, 1: Spring 2006), 24.
  • "Never Write about Writing," Rules of Thumb:73 Authors Reveal Their Fiction Writing Fixations, ed. Michael Martone, (Writers Digest Books: 2005), 3pp.
  • From "Frank," The Brooklyn Rail (December, 2005).
  • From "Untitled," The New Review of Literature vol. 2, no. 2 (April, 2005), pp. 4-8.
  • From "Untitled," Notre Dame Review (19: 2005), pp. 109-14.
  • "Wittgenstein's Writing," Journal of Modern Literature, forthcoming, 2006.
  • "The Avant Garde and the Question of Literature," Soundings: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Study, (Vol 88, nos. 1-2: Spring-Summer, 2005), 105-27.
  • "Language," A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture, ed. David Bradshaw and Kevin Dettmar (Blackwell: 2006}, 113-22.
  • "Sukenick’s Dying Words," Golden Handcuffs Review, 2005.
  • From "Untitled," The Brooklyn Rail, 2004.
  • "12 Theses on Fiction’s Present," (with Jeffrey Di Leo) Symploke, 2004.
  • "Is There a Language Problem?" Electronic Book Review, 2004.
  • "Ego and the Sublime: Rereading Sukenick," American Book Review, 2004.
  • "Cavell's Meaning 1968," Symploke, 2004.
  • "Second Story," reprinted in Extreme Fiction, ed. Robin Hemley and Michael Martone, Longman, 2004.
  • "In Which Henry James Strikes Bedrock," reprinted in Ordinary Language Criticism: Literary Thinking after Cavell after Wittgenstein, ed. Kenneth M. Dauber and Walter Jost, Northwestern University Press, 2003.
  • "from FRANK (The Lawton Letters)," Fiction International, 2003.
  • AHPEG Grant (FSU Literature and Film Conference), 2003-4.
  • Florida Cultural Support Grant (FC2), 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000.
  • NEA Grant in Literary Publishing (FC2), 2005, 2003, 2001.
  • Tallahassee Cultural Resources Council Grant (FC2), 2004, 2003, 2002.
  • COFRS Summer Award, 2001.
  • Pushcart Prize nominee, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1991, 1990.
  • New York Times "Notable Book" for Leonardo’s Horse, 1998.
  • Florida Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, 1995-96, 1988-89.
  • Teaching Incentive Program Award, 1995-6.
  • Pushcart Prize honorable mention, 1991-92.
  • Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, 1991.

Publications By This Author
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