Bruce W. Holsinger is an American author, novelist, and an academic and literary scholar. Currently, he is professor of English at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

Academic career

He is considered an expert on the use of

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

in medieval English manuscript production, and organized, with bioarchaeologists from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, the research project into uterine vellum which established the precise composition for the material used in for the creation of the earliest bible manuscripts.

Novelist

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described him as "gamekeeper turned poacher", due to the fact that Holsinger, a professor at the

, specializing in medieval

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

, turned to writing fiction based around his academic interests. His first novel was ''A Burnable Book'' in 2014. This was set in fourteenth-century England during the reign of

King Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), and Joan, Countess of Kent. R ...

, and has Holsinger's protagonist

John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works—the ''Mirour de l'Omme'', ''Vox ...

—at the instigation of

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

—hunt down a supposedly revolutionary book, in which a series of poems predict the deaths of the kings of England. One of the most prominent characters is one ''Edgar Rykener''—who is in-universe also called Eleanor—a man who dresses as a woman and has sex for money. This inclusion, says Holsinger, is directly based on the real-life case of John Rykener, which also occurred in 1394, the year Holsinger sets the events of his book. In February 2018 Holsinger was appointed editor of the University of Virginia's

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

ed journal, '' New Literary History''; he is the third member of staff to take the position since the journal's foundation in 1969. He has written for the ''

New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

'', ''

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'' and

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s for ''The New York Times''.

Books

Fiction

* ''The Displacements'' (2022) * ''The Gifted School'' (2019) * ''The Invention of Fire'' (2015) * ''A Burnable Book'' (2014)

Non-Fiction

*Nace, Nicholas D. "Review." ''

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'' 74 (no.1) Spring, 2025: 183-185. * ''Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror'' (Chicago, 2007) * ''The Premodern Condition: Medievalism and the Making of Theory'' (Chicago, 2005) * ''Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture'' (Stanford, 2001)

Notes

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holsinger, Bruce Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Virginia staff American historical fiction writers