Russell A. Potter (born 1960) is an American writer and college professor, and guitarist. His work encompasses hip hop culture, popular music, and the history of British exploration of the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

in the nineteenth century, as well as the material in the courses he teaches in English literature at Rhode Island College. His books include ''Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism'' (1995) and ''Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture'', 1818-1875 (2007), as well as a novel, ''Pyg: The Memoirs of a Learned Pig'' (2011). He teaches at Rhode Island College, where he is editor of the Arctic Book Review. He also worked as a consultant on, and appears in, the Nova documentary Arctic Passage (2006). In 2021, Potter's albums were reissued on vinyl LPs.

Biography

Potter was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

in 1960. He attended St. John's Lutheran School, Gilmour Academy, and the Friends School in Cleveland (later the School on Magnolia). In 1979, he founded the Black Snake record label, on which he released two albums of his own solo guitar compositions, as well as a 45 rpm single of a bluegrass version of Devo's " Mongoloid" by the Hotfoot Quartet. He later attended Goddard College and the Evergreen State College; he earned his Ph.D. in

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 ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1991. He lives in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

. He is a professor at Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island. He has developed courses in English on several topics, including literature in Victorian England. He has posted material on that era, about an early detective and his representation in ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode Serial (literature), serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by th ...

'', a novel by Charles Dickens.

Books

*''Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-hop and the Politics of Postmodernism'', SUNY Press 1995 () *''Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818-1875'', University of Washington Press 2007 () *''Pyg: The Memoirs of a Learned Pig'', Canongate Books 2011 () * ''Finding Franklin: The Untold Story of a 165-Year Search'', McGiill-Queen's University Press 2016 ()

References

External links

Rhode Island College webpage
* 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 1960 births American male novelists Brown University alumni Evergreen State College alumni Goddard College alumni Living people Novelists from Ohio Syracuse University alumni Writers from Cleveland {{US-novelist-1960s-stub