Michael Livingston is an American historian, a professor of

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

, and a

historical fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic (fantasy), magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those c ...

novelist. His 2015 debut novel, '' The Shards of Heaven'', has been followed by two sequels.

Education and career

Originally from Colorado, Livingston has a B.A. in history from

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

, an M.A. in

medieval studies Medieval studies is the academic interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages. A historian who studies medieval studies is called a medievalist. Institutional development The term 'medieval studies' began to be adopted by academics in the opening ...

from

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

, and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

. He has been a professor at The Citadel in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, since 2006.

Television

Michael Livingston is the co-star on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

TV show '' Contact'', in which he skeptically examines potential evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life and its impact on Earth.

Writing

Livingston has published multiple academic works. He has written numerous articles on the world of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

, ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'',

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 ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

and Robert Jordan. Livingston said in 2015, "one of the key bits of advice I ever received as a young novelist-to-be was to try to cut my teeth on writing short stories ... starting with short stories was vital to the development of my career". Livingston's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''The Shards of Heaven'', was published by

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

in November 2015. Two sequels have subsequently been published.

Middle English translations

* * *

Academia

* * * * * *Livingston, Michael (2021). ''Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England''. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. *Livingston, Michael (2022).
Crécy: Battle of Five Kings
'. Osprey Publishing.

General non-fiction

Fiction

Short stories

* * * * * Livingston, Michael (2016). "The Temples of the Ark" (''Shards of Heaven'').

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, Audible audiobooks, and other digital media via wireless networking ...

(short story). Livingston's 2011 collection ''Angels Among Other Things'', self-published via

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

, consisted of nine short stories, including "The Keeper Alone" and "At the End of Babel".

Novels

* * *

Anthologies edited

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Livingston, Michael 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American historical novelists The Citadel faculty Living people Novelists from Colorado Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity Year of birth missing (living people)