Bio: | Professor Brian Railsback earned his AA (Liberal Arts)from Ventura College; BS (Journalism) from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo; MA (Creative Writing) and PhD (American Literature) from Ohio University. He was Department Head of English and is the founding Dean of The Honors College at WCU. An internationally recognized scholar of John Steinbeck, he has published numerous book chapters on the author and has published Parallel Expeditions: Charles Darwin and the Art of John Steinbeck (University of Idaho Press, 1995), and co-edited A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, 2006) and co-edited a Library of America edition of Steinbeck's work, Travels with Charley and Later Novels (2007). He has also written a novel, The Darkest Clearing (High Sierra Books, 2004) and in 2006 won the Prose for Papa (Hemingway) Award for his short story, "Clean Break." In 2004 he was named University Scholar and was co-chair of the committee that produced WCU's Quality Enhancement Plan, adopted in 2007. |