| Curriculum vitae Robert Hellenga Knox College 2 E. South St. Galesburg, Illinois 61401 (309) 341-7359 (office) (309) 343-8957 (home) (309) 734-8758 (winter) rhelleng@knox.edu Agent: Henry Dunow Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency 27 W. 20th St., Suite 1107 New York, NY 10011 212 645-7606 Fax: 212 645-7614 email: henry@dclagency.com Date of birth: 5 August 1941 Family: married, three daughters, three grandchildren Education: 1959-63 B.A. University of Michigan 1963-64 “Occasional Scholar” in Greek and English at The Queen’s University at Belfast 1964-65 The University of North Carolina (Comparative Literature) 1965-68 Ph.D. Princeton University (English) Dissertation: “Thomas Underdowne’s Aethiopian History”—a critical edition, with a lengthy introduction, of an English Renaissance translation of a Latin translation of the Aethiopica of Heliodorus. Academic Honors and Fellowships: Graduated “With High Honors” from the University of Michigan (1963) Phi Kappa Phi Phi Beta Kappa Exchange Fellowship, The Queen’s University of Belfast (1963-64) Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, University of North Carolina (1964-1965) NDEA Title IV Fellowship, Princeton (1965-68) NEH Fellowship in Residence, University of Chicago (1975-76) NEH Summer Seminar, Princeton (1979) Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Creative Writing (1981-82) Honorable Mention in The California Quarterly short-fiction competition Illinois Arts Council Artist’s Grant (1983-84) Illinois Arts Council Artist’s Grant (1984-85) Illinois Arts Council Artist’s Literary Award (1885) Finalist in the PEN Nelson Algren Competition (1986) Illinois Arts Council Artist’s Grant (1987-88) PEN Syndicated Fiction Award (1988) NEA Artist’s Fellowship (1989) Illinois Arts Council Artist’s Grant (1990-91) Society of Midland Authors 1995 Award for Fiction (The Sixteen Pleasures) Los Angeles Times list of “Best Fiction of 1998” (Fall of a Sparrow) Publisher’s Weekly “Best ‘98 Books” (Fall of a Sparrow) Illinois Arts Council Finalist’s Award (2001) Society of Midland Authors 2002 runner-up Award for Fiction (Blues Lessons) Illinois Arts Council Finalists Award (2006) Teaching experience: In addition to the usual introductory courses in fiction, poetry, and composition, I have taught upper-level courses in the following: The English Renaissance, Shakespeare, Malory, Milton, Greek Drama, Comedy, Romanticism, Reader-Response Criticism, and Literary Criticism; and lower-level courses in Philosophy and Literature and Classical Mythology. In 1973-74 I was the co-director of The Newberry Library Seminar in the Humanities; and in 1982-83 I was the director of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s program in Florence. (At the Newberry I taught a course called “The Search for Community”; in Florence I taught two courses: “Virgil and Dante,” and “The concept of the Renaissance.”) In recent years I’ve cut back on my teaching, but I have regularly taught courses in Beginning Fiction Writing” and Classical Mythology. Scholarly articles and reviews: “Hamlet in the Classroom,” College English 35 (1973), 32-39. “The Tournaments in Malory’s Morte Darthur, Forum for Modern Language Studies 10 1974), 67-78. “The Scandal of The Winter’s Tale,” English Studies 57 (1976), 11-18. “Shakespeare: Our Contemporary?” Teaching Shakespeare 1 (1976). “Macomber Redivivus,” Notes on Modern American Literature (1979), no. 10. “Departmental Acquisitions Policies for Small College Libraries,” Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 3 (1979), no. 10. “Elizabethan Dramatic Conventions and Elizabethan Reality,” Renaissance Drama NS XII (1981), 27-49. “What Is A Literary Experience Like?” New Literary History 14 (1982-83), 105-115. “Reader-Response Criticism: The State of the Art” (review article), Genre 21 (1988), 359-69. Review of Howard Norman’s The Bird Artist, Washington Post Book World, Sunday 24 July 1994. Review of Isabel Allende’s Aphrodite. San Jose Mercury News, Sunday 12 April 1998 (lead review in book section) “Gutenberg Man.” Cover article in the Illinois Library Association Newsletter. XVI, Issue 6, December 1998. Review of Louis Begley’s Mistler’s Exit. Chicago Tribune book section (Sunday 27 December 1998) Cover review of Joe McGinniss’s Miracle of Castel di Sangro. Chicago Tribune book section, Sunday 6 June, 1999. Cover review of Jane Hamilton’s Disobedience. Chicago Tribune book section (Sunday 29 October, 2000). Review of Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. Chicago Tribune book section (Sunday 27 June 2001). Fiction: “Russian Dreams,” The Iowa Review (Fall 1973), 40-44. “A Lover’s Pinch,” The Chicago Review (January 1975), 179-86. The Mountain of Lights,” The California Quarterly 21 (1982), 93-112. Listed in Best American Short Stories 1983; reprinted in Best Short Stories from The California Quarterly, 1971-1985. “Strange Bedfellows,” Columbia 7 (1982), 85-90. “Green of Real Green,” Ascent 10 (December 1984), 55-62. “Class of ’59,” Farmer’s Market 2 (January 1984), 4-8. “The Minstrels,” Farmer’s Market 3 (Fall 1985), 31-36. “Pockets of Silence,” The Chicago Tribune, Magazine Section, 29 January 1989, 18-20. “Where I Want to Be,” TriQuarterly 81 (Spring/Summer 1991), 55-76. “I Speak a Little French,” Crazyhorse 43 (Winter 1992), 82-91. “The Second Coming,” Mississippi Valley Review 23 (Fall 1992), 63-79. The Sixteen Pleasures. New York: Soho 1994. Dell 1995. “O Happy Men, If Love Which Rules the Stars Rule Your Hearts,” Crazyhorse 47 (Winter 1994), 125-38). “FOR SALE,” Black Warrior Review 23 (Spring/Summer 1997), 1-13. The Fall of a Sparrow. New York: Scribner, 1998. Blues Lessons. New York: Scribner, 2002. “Snapshots of Aphrodite,” StoryQuarterly 38 (2002), 478-488. Philosophy Made Simple. New York: Little Brown, 2006. The Italian Lover. New York: Little Brown, 2007. Essays: [“What Does A Writer Want?”] The Phi Beta Kappa Key Reporter (Autumn 1995). “Bologna Through Medieval Eyes,” The New York Times Magazine (“The Sophisticated Traveler”), 10 Nov. 1996, 20+. “When Florence Was A Flood Plain,” Sky (Delta Airlines in-flight magazine), November 1996, 135-39. Reprinted in Travelers’ Tales Guides: Italy: True Stories of Life on the Road. Ed. Anne Calcagno. San Francisco: Travelers’ Tales Inc., 1998. Selected journal entries in The Writer’s Journal: 40 Contemporary Writers and their Journals, ed. Sheila Bender (New York: Dell, 1997). Reprinted in Keeping a Journal You Love, ed. Sheila Bender. Cincinnati: Walking Stick Press, 2001. Pp. 136-54. “Florence: A Protest at a Crossroads.” The New York Times Magazine (“The Sophisticated Traveler”), 9 November 1997, (around p. 12). “Gutenberg Man.” Cover article in the Illinois Library Association Newsletter. XVI, Issue 6, December 1998. Short piece on a bed and breakfast in a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park. New York Times Magazine (Sophisticated Traveler), Sunday 25 July 1999. P. 11. “Tuscany,” The National Geographic, special collector’s issue (“Fifty Places of a Lifetime”), October 1999. Reprinted in The National Geographic Traveler Magazine, 2001. (I’ve never seen this and am unsure of the publication details. It’s on the web at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/articles/1039tuscany.html.) Cover review of Jane Hamilton’s Disobedience. Chicago Tribune book section (Sunday 29 October, 2000). “A Writer’s Christmas.” Gettysburg Review (Autumn 2001). “Rural Writers.” In the Middle of the Middle West, ed. Becky Bradway. Indiana University Press, 2003. Pp. 200-204. “Off the Map.” National Geographic Traveler, October 2007. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/features/suddenjourneys0705/journeys.html#robert
|