About

Bradley J. Fest is associate professor of literature, media, and writing and the 2022–25 Cora A. Babcock Chair in English at Hartwick College, where he has taught courses in creative writing, poetry and poetics, and twentieth- and twenty-first-century United States literature since 2017. He is the author of two volumes of poetry, The Rocking Chair (Blue Sketch, 2015) and The Shape of Things (Salò, 2017), and 2013–2017: Sonnets, the first volume in his ongoing sonnet sequence, will be published by LJMcD Communications in July 2024. He has also written a number of essays on contemporary literature and culture, which have been published or are forthcoming in boundary 2, CounterText, Critique, Genre, Scale in Literature and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), and elsewhere. More information is available at bradleyjfest.com.

Education

PhD in English, University of Pittsburgh, 2013

MFA in Creative Writing, University of Pittsburgh, 2007

BA in English and Creative Writing, University of Arizona, 2004

Other Publications

Poetry Collections

2013–2017: Sonnets (Ipswich, AU: LJMcD Communications, forthcoming 2024). 102 pages.

The Shape of Things (Norwich, UK: Salò, 2017). 96 pages.

The Rocking Chair (Pittsburgh, PA: Blue Sketch, 2015). 120 pages. 

Essays: Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

“‘Is an Archive Enough?’: Megatextual Debris in the Work of Rachel Blau DuPlessis,” in “Big, Ambitious Novels by Twenty-First-Century Women,” ed. Courtney Jacobs and James Zeigler, special issue, Genre 54, no. 1 (April 2021): 139–65.

“Coda: Writing Briefly about Really Big Things,” in Begging the Question: Critical Reasoning in Chaucer Studies, Book History, and Humanistic Inquiry (Mythodologies II), by Joseph A. Dane (Los Angeles: Marymount Institute Press, 2019), 177–81.

“Reading Now and Again: Hyperarchivalism and Democracy in Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller’s Thinking Literature across Continents,” CounterText 4, no. 1 (April 2018): 9–29, https://doi.org/10.3366/count.2018.0114.

“Toward a Theory of the Megatext: Speculative Criticism and Richard Grossman’s ‘Breeze Avenue Working Paper,’” in Scale in Literature and Culture, ed. Michael Tavel Clarke and David Wittenberg (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 253–80.

“Mobile Games, SimCity BuildIt, and Neoliberalism,” First Person Scholar, November 9, 2016, http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/mobile-games-simcity-buildit-and-neoliberalism/.

“Metaproceduralism: The Stanley Parable and the Legacies of Postmodern Metafiction,” in “Videogame Adaptation,” ed. Kevin M. Flanagan, special issue, Wide Screen 6, no. 1 (2016): 1–23, http://widescreenjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/105/145.

“Geologies of Finitude: The Deep Time of Twenty-First-Century Catastrophe in Don DeLillo’s Point Omega and Reza Negarestani’s Cyclonopedia,” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 57, no. 5 (2016): 565–78.

“Apocalypse Networks: Representing the Nuclear Archive,” in The Silence of Fallout: Nuclear Criticism in a Post-Cold War World, ed. Michael J. Blouin, Morgan Shipley, and Jack Taylor (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2013), 81–103. (An earlier draft of this essay was the recipient of the 2011 SFRA Student Paper Award; selected as one of the best books of 2013 by Zero Books.)

“The Inverted Nuke in the Garden: Archival Emergence and Anti-Eschatology in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest,” boundary 2 39, no. 3 (Fall 2012): 125–49. (Awarded the 2013 SLSA Schachterle Prize for the best essay written by a nontenured scholar.)

“‘Then Out of the Rubble’: The Apocalypse in David Foster Wallace’s Early Fiction,” Studies in the Novel 44, no. 3 (Fall 2012): 284–303.

Interviews (Peer Reviewed)

“Something Worth Leaving in Shards: An Interview with Rachel Blau DuPlessis,” boundary 2 50, no. 2 (May 2023): 1–30.

“An Interview with Jonathan Arac,” boundary 2 43, no. 2 (May 2016): 27–57.

“Isn’t It a Beautiful Day? An Interview with J. Hillis Miller,” boundary 2 41, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 123–58.

Reprinted Peer-Reviewed Articles and Interviews

“Isn’t It a Beautiful Day? An Interview with J. Hillis Miller,” in Reading Inside Out: Interviews and Conversations, by J. Hillis Miller, ed. David Jonathan Y. Bayot (Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2017), 191–224.

“‘Then Out of the Rubble’: David Foster Wallace’s Early Fiction,” repr. with slight revisions in David Foster Wallace and “The Long Thing”: New Essays on the Novels, ed. Marshall Boswell (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), 85–105.

Reviews

“The Function of Videogame Criticism,” review of How to Talk about Videogames, by Ian Bogost, b2o Review, August 3, 2016, http://www.boundary2.org/2016/08/the-function-of-videogame-criticism/.

“Poetics of Control,” review of The Interface Effect, by Alexander R. Galloway, b2o Review, July 15, 2015, http://boundary2.org/2015/07/15/poetics-of-control/.

Review of Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays, ed. David Hering, Critical Quarterly 53, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 102–6.

Poetry in Journals

“Archives of Spring,” Decadent Review, April 18, 2023, https://thedecadentreview.com/corpus/archives-of-spring/.

“2021.05,” “2022.03,” and “2022.04,” Kitchen Sink 1, no. 1 (March 2023): 55–57, https://drive.google.com/file/d/10us6pIfevn_m8pw5Bz6buiD6_a6vT_Ax/view.

“2021.06,” “2022.01,” and “2022.05,” IceFloe Press, March 15, 2023, https://icefloepress.net/2021-06-2022-01-2022-05-bradley-j-fest/.

“2022.06,” “2023.02,” “2023.03,” “2023.04,” and “2023.05–06,” D.O.R. (Deadly Orgone Radiation), no. 2 (April 2023): 135–46, https://lachlanjmcdougall.wordpress.com/2023/03/14/d-o-r-issue-2-now-available/.

“Archives of Winter,” Decadent Review, January 16, 2023, https://thedecadentreview.com/corpus/archives-of-winter/.

“2022.02,” Apocalypse Confidential, November 17, 2022, https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2022/11/17/2022-02/.

“Archives of Autumn,” Decadent Review, October 1, 2022, https://thedecadentreview.com/corpus/archives-of-autumn/.

“Archives of Summer,” Decadent Review, July 25, 2022, https://thedecadentreview.com/corpus/archives-of-summer/.

“Sestina I,” “Sestina II,” “Sestina III,” and “Aubade and After,” Always Crashing, no. 5 (2022): 106–17.

“2020.12,” “2021.01,” “2021.02,” “2021.03,” and “2021.04,” Version (9) Magazine 1, no. 3 (Summer 2022): 17-21, https://version9magazine.com/edition-1-volume-3-summer-2022/.

“2020.07,” “2020.08,” “2020.09,” “2020.10,” and “2020.11,” Version (9) Magazine 1, no. 2 (Autumn 2021): 57–62, https://version9magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Edition-1-volume-2-Autumn-2021-Word-Format-Final-Copy.pdf.

“2015.04,” “2015.15,” “2015.18,” “2015.26,” “2016.02,” and “2016.28,” Aesthetic Directory, September 1, 2021, https://www.theaesthetic.directory/journal.

“c o n t e m p o r a n e i t y,” “Silence,” and “Blason IV,” Version (9) Magazine 1, no. 1 (Summer 2021): 18–22, https://version9magazine.com/edition-1-volume-1-summer-2021/.

“2016.29” and “2016.30,” Matter, no. 29 (May 2021), https://mattermonthly.com/2021/05/19/2016-29/ and https://mattermonthly.com/2021/05/19/2016-30/.

“2015.10,” “2015.23,” and “2016.10,” Babel Tower Notice Board, May 7, 2021, https://www.thebabeltowernoticeboard.com/featured-writing/three-poems-by-bradley-j-fest.

“2020.01,” “2020.02,” “2020.03,” “2020.04,” “2020.05,” and “2020.06,” Always Crashing, December 22, 2020, https://www.alwayscrashing.com/current/2020/12/17/bradley-j-fest-6-sonnets.

“2015.09,” “2016.27,” “2018.01,” “2019.01,” and “2019.02,” Call Me [Brackets], no. 5 (December 2020), https://callmebrackets.net/poems-from-bradley-j-fest/.

“Dead Horse Bay” and “Archives of Winter,” in Poetics for the More-than-Human World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary, ed. Mary Newell, Bernard Quetchenbach, and Sarah Nolan (Brooklyn, NY: Spuyten Duyvil, 2020), 109–12.

“2015.11” and “2015.12,” Adjacent Pineapple, no. 6 (August 2020), https://www.adjacentpineapple.com/bradley-j-fest.

“Blason I,” “Blason II,” and “Blason III,” in The Second Chance Anthology, ed. Tyler Pufpaff (Variant Literature, 2020), 2–7.

“2019.03,” Pine Hills Review, July 8, 2020, https://pinehillsreview.com/2020/07/08/bradleyjfest/.

“Paraclausithyron,” Flatbush Review, no. 5, July 1, 2020, http://www.flatbushreview.com/bradley-j.-fest.html (dead link).

“2016.31,” “2016.33,” “2016.36: Preface,” and “2017.01: Afterword,” Always Crashing, no. 3 (2020): 87-95.

“Dead Horse Bay” and “Archives of Winter,” in “Poetics for the More-than-Human World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary,” ed. Mary Newell, Bernard Quetchenbach, and Sarah Nolan, special issue, Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, April 30, 2020, https://www.dispatchespoetrywars.com/poetics-for-the-more-than-human-world/2-poems-41/.

“Meditations at Oneonta” and “Humid Figures and a Handful of Dust,” Pamenar Online Magazine, March 3, 2020, https://www.pamenarpress.com/post/bradley-j-fest.

“2019.04,” Rabid Oak, no. 17 (February 2020), https://rabidoak.com/issues/issue-17/2019-04/.

“2016.16,” “2016.17,” “2016.18,” 2016.21,” “2016.22,” and “2016.26,” Mannequin Haus, nos. vi and xii (January 2020), https://quinhausvi.weebly.com/bradley-j-fest.html.

“2016.05” and “2016.08,” in “Tenth-Anniversary Issue,” special issue, Sugar House Review, no. 19 (2019): 67–68.

“Ekphraseis,” Masque & Spectacle, no. 18, September 1, 2019, https://masqueandspectacle.com/2019/09/01/ekphraseis-bradley-j-fest/.

“2016.35,” Nerve Cowboy, no. 45 (forthcoming September 2018).

“2016.15,” Likely Red, April 23, 2018, https://likelyred.com/2018/04/23/2016-15-by-bradley-j-fest/.

“2014.07,” “2014.08,” “2015.03,” “2015.07,” and “2015.08,” The Airgonaut, February 1, 2018, https://theairgonautblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/five-poems-2/.

“2016.11,” “2016.13,” “2016.20,” “2016.24,” and “2016.25,” HVTN 3, no. 2 (November 2017): 25–29.

“2015.05” and “2015.06,” Epigraph Magazine, no. 16 (September 2017): 8–9, http://www.epigraphmagazine.com/uploads/1/5/6/7/15676572/epigraph_issue_016.pdf.

“2015.13,” “2015.16,” “2015.25,” and “2015.27,” in “Relativity of Zen,” ed. Adam Pottle, Grain 44, no. 3 (Spring 2017): 50–53.

“2015.17,” The Offbeat, no. 17 (Fall 2016): 82.

“The Shape of Things I,” “Architects and Their Books,” “What We Are Looking At,” “Tristeza,” “An Ode to 2013: We Are the National Security Agency’s Children,” “Throw Out Your Life,” and “The Shape of Things II,” Verse 33, nos. 1–3 (2016): 123–59. (Finalist for the 2015 Tomaž Šalamun Prize).

“2016.01,” “2016.19,” and “2016.23,” Masque & Spectacle, no. 9 (September 2016), https://masqueandspectacle.com/2016/09/01/3-poems-bradley-j-fest/.

“2015.01,” TXTOBJX, July 28, 2016, http://txtobjx.com/post/148094387492/201501.

“Architects and Their Books,” Verse (blog), April 16, 2016, http://versemag.blogspot.com/2016/04/bradley-fest-2015-tomaz-salamun-prize.html.

“2014.01,” “2014.02,” “2014.03,” “2014.04,” “2014.05,” and “2014.06,” Empty Mirror, October 13, 2015, http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/features/six-sonnets-by-bradley-j-fest.html.

“2015.02,” Small Po(r)tions, no. 5 (Fall 2015), 69, http://smallportionsjournal.com/2015/09/29/bradley-j-fest-2015-02/.

“The Shape of Things I,” “Winter, or, Some (Future) Ambiguities,” and “We’re Just Like Yesterday’s Headlines,” PLINTH, no. 3 (Spring 2015), http://www.plinth.us/issue03/fest.html.

“Oceanic” and “Survival City,” in “Sci-Pulp Poetics,” special issue, PELT, no. 3 (September 2014), 52–55, http://organismforpoeticresearch.org/two-poems-bradley-fest/.

“One Summer Near Niagara,” 2River View 18, no. 4 (Summer 2014), http://www.2river.org/2RView/18_4/poems/fest.html.

“If the Marianas Trench Were a Gathering of Sound,” After Happy Hour Review, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 22, https://afterhappyhourreview.com/AHH%20Issue%201.pdf. Reprinted in After Happy Hour Review: Best of 2014 Edition (Fall 2014), 24.

“2013.04,” “2013.05,” and “2013.06,” Spork, July 7, 2013, http://sporkpress.com/?p=3973.

“2013.01,” “2013.02,” and “2013.03,” Spork, June 30, 2013, http://sporkpress.com/?p=3939.

“Two Parts of a Parallax Gap1,” Flywheel Magazine, no. 2 (January 2012), http://www.flywheelmag.com/962/two-parts-of-a-parallax-gap%C2%B9/.

“A Second E(ff)luvium,” BathHouse: Hypermedia Arts Journal 8, no. 1 (February 2011), http://bhjournal.com/issues/Vol8_1/bradley-fest-effluvium.php (dead link).

“Nothingness Introduced into the Heart of the Image,” in Open Thread Regional Review, vol. 2, ed. Cecilia Westbrook (Pittsburgh, PA: Open Thread, 2010), 53.

“The One/Symphony of the Great Transnational,” Spork 6, no. 1 (2007), http://www.sporkpress.com/6_1/pieces/Fest.html.

Blog Posts

    Projects

    Works in Progress

    Postrock (fourth poetry manuscript currently under consideration at various contests and presses). 97 pages.

    2018-202X: Sonnets (fifth poetry manuscript).

    Synthwave (sixth poetry manuscript).

    Too Big to Read: The Megatext in the Twenty-First Century (scholarly book project).

    The Hyperarchival Parallax: Essays on Contemporary Culture.

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