Ross K. Tangedal
About
Ross K. Tangedal
I am Associate Professor of English and Director & Publisher of the Cornerstone Press at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I am the author of The Preface: American Authorship in the Twentieth Century (Palgrave Macmillan 2021), and editor (w/ Lisa DuRose and Andy Oler) of Michigan Salvage: The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell (Michigan State University Press 2023) and (w/ Joshua M. Murray) Editing the Harlem Renaissance (Clemson University Press 2021). My articles have been published in a number of journals, including Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, South Atlantic Review, the Hemingway Review, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, Authorship, and others.
My areas of research and teaching expertise include American print & publishing culture, book history (1800-the present), bibliography (descriptive, analytical, and enumerative), authorship, and textual editing (documentary and scholarly), with emphasis on Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the American Midwest. I am a contributing editor for the Hemingway Letters Project (Cambridge University Press), as well as associate volume editor of the forthcoming Volume 6: The Letters of Ernest Hemingway (1934-1936) (Cambridge University Press 2024).
Ross K. Tangedal, Ph.D.
​
American Print & Publishing Culture | Book History
Bibliography | Authorship | Textual Editing
RESEARCH
Ross K. Tangedal
Books
The Preface: American Authorship in the Twentieth Century
Palgrave Macmillan, November 2021
New Directions in Book History Series
​
“In The Preface, Ross K. Tangedal examines an often-overlooked textual element in literature: an opening commentary (either current or in retrospect) by an author about a particular work of fiction. The author addresses the reader directly to recall the creation of the work, to reply to
critics, and to assert authority over interpretation. Tangedal’s approach in this excellent new monograph yields a great many fresh and valuable insights, both critical and biographical.”
—James L. W. West III
Sparks Professor of English, Emeritus
Pennsylvania State University, Author of American Authors
and the Literary Marketplace since 1900
“Ross K. Tangedal’s The Preface: American Authorship in the Twentieth Century offers an expansive, inclusive take on a textual tradition that most readers consider the print equivalent of a hello. Tangedal’s multi-level discussion of this device demonstrates how integral it is to theories of authorship, and how major novelists from Willa Cather to Toni Morrison, and now-overlooked writers like Ring Lardner, employed it to fashion their personae for public consumption. From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s early self-deprecation (which did not serve him well) to Ernest Hemingway’s pugilistic professionalism to Robert Penn Warren’s obsession with historical motive, Tangedal reveals the range writers display and the risks they undertake in this textual space.”
—Kirk Curnutt
Professor of English, Troy University
Editor of American Literature in Transition, 1970–1980
Editing the Harlem Renaissance
Clemson University Press, June 2021
African American Literature Series
co-edited with Joshua M. Murray
​
“With a wide-ranging, erudite, and accessible suite of essays, Editing the Harlem Renaissance is a profoundly useful and long-awaited volume on an understudied yet essential facet of African American literature and Black textual production writ large. As it productively stretches common understandings of what constitutes editing, the volume puts a much-needed spotlight onto key figures, editorial practices, and publications—old and new—that played essential roles in fashioning, curating, collecting, and essentially creating what we now know as the Harlem Renaissance. This excellent book is to be celebrated, not only for what it already achieves, but also, we must hope, for helping to herald a new age of Black bibliography.”
—Jean-Christophe Cloutier
author of Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature
​
“Examining ‘editorial genealogies and futures,’ this timely collection approaches editing the Harlem Renaissance as both a historical project and an ongoing activity—a kind of ‘care work’ broadly conceived to include not only editing magazines, anthologies, and critical editions, but also bibliography, librarianship, recovery work, introductory essays, computational analysis, and curation of websites and digital archives. Adopting a range of methods and a lucid, engaging style of delivery, the contributors elevate the often invisible, undervalued labor of editing, demonstrating that this “’work of many hands’ was and remains essential to what is now called the Harlem Renaissance.”
—Suzanne Churchill
author of The Little Magazine Others and the Renovation of Modern American Poetry
Michigan Salvage: The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell
Michigan State University Press, May 2023
co-edited with Lisa DuRose and Andy Oler
​
"Bonnie Jo Campbell’s fiction is extraordinary. The contributors to this first book about her work offer wide-ranging insights into her vision of 'the tangled uncertainty of promise and pain in ordinary lives.' They enlarge our understanding of Campbell’s stories and novels in many contexts, and offer inspiring examples of how to teach them in many settings. Michigan Salvage lives up to its topic—and that is high praise."
—June Howard
Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan
author of The Center of the World: Regional Writing and the Puzzles of Place-Time
​
“In a time when teaching our literary truth tellers is critical, Campbell’s deeply rewarding novels and stories offer insights into the nature of human beings under unanticipated, often unjust stresses. In this collection of essays about Campbell’s work, critics, teachers, writers, students and thinkers will discover abundant analysis, relevant inquiry, inspiring prompts, and a rich array of pedagogical approaches. I’ve long wanted to bring the power of the Great Lakes Midwest voice to the forefront of the new canons in our classrooms and consciousness. This lively focus on Campbell’s work compels us toward that. I couldn’t be more grateful for this incredible resource.”
—Anne-Marie Oomen
author of As Long as I Know You: The Mom Book
winner of AWP's Sue William Silverman Award
TEACHING
Ross K. Tangedal
I teach a variety of English courses at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, as part of both the Cornerstone Press operations and the English Department's major emphasis in Writing, Editing, and Publishing (WEP). Our publishing program is staffed year-round with three primary courses: Editing and Publishing (Fall), Book and Publication Design (Spring), and Small Press Management (Summer). These courses produce all titles released by the Cornerstone Press, amounting to 25-30 books published per year. Check out the press website for more details.
​
In addition to practical, curricular publishing offerings, I also teach print studies courses for our major: Book History, Editorial Process, and The Profession of Authorship. These courses provide students with a detailed survey of writing studies, print culture studies, editorial theory and practice, and bibliography. I also teach multiple sections of freshman and sophomore composition, as well as a summer publishing class for teachers and education students. On occasion I have taught Creative Nonfiction, Advanced Freshman English, and Intermediate Composition.
Education
Ph.D., Kent State University, English, 2015
*Kenneth R. Pringle Dissertation Fellow
M.A., Montana State University, English, 2010
B.A., Montana State University, English literature, 2008
professional Appointments
Associate Professor, English, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 2022-present
Assistant Professor, English, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 2016-2022
Postdoctoral Fellow, English, Mercyhurst University, 2015-2016
​
publications
Book
The Preface: American Authorship in the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, xviii, 220.
​
Edited Collections
The Routledge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Edited by Philip McGowan, Ross K. Tangedal, and Helen Turner. Routledge [under advance contract; forthcoming 2025]
​
Good Country: Ernest Hemingway and the American West. Edited by Ross K. Tangedal. University of Nevada Press [under advance contract; forthcoming 2025]
​
Michigan Salvage: The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell. Edited by Lisa DuRose, Ross K. Tangedal, and Andy Oler. Michigan State University Press, 2023, xxiv, 216 pp.
​
Editing the Harlem Renaissance. Edited by Joshua M. Murray and Ross K. Tangedal. Clemson University Press, 2021, xii, 300 pp.
​
Edited Volumes and Editions
Associate Editor. The Letters of Ernest Hemingway (1934-1936). Volume 6. Edited by Sandra Spanier, Miriam Mandel, and Verna Kale. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024.
​
The Wisconsin Idea. By Charles McCarthy. 1912. Edited by Ross K. Tangedal and Jeff Snowbarger. Cornerstone Press, 2019. xxx, 304 pp.
​
Foreign Born. By John Herrmann. Edited by Ross K. Tangedal. Hastings College Press, 2018, xxviii, 290 pp.
​
Journal Articles (refereed)
“Bonnie Jo Campbell (1962–): A Descriptive Bibliography.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 115, no. 4, 2021, pp. 463–506.
“Fertile and Quiescent: Midwestern Memory in Bonnie Jo Campbell’s ‘Winter Life.’” MidAmerica, vol. 47, 2020, pp. 65–76.
​
“I’m Inclined to Believe: Editing Uncertainty in the Ending(s) to Nella Larsen’s Passing.” South Atlantic Review, vol. 84, nos. 2–3, 2019, pp. 205–223.
“Alone and Alone: Defense, Justification, and Apology in Fitzgerald’s Late Prefaces.” F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, vol. 15, 2017, pp. 51–71.
“Breaking Forelegs: Hemingway’s Early Prefaces.” Hemingway Review, vol. 37, no. 1, 2017, pp. 65–82.
“Nothing is Left but the Sky: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Booth Tarkington, and Midwestern Influence.” Midwestern Miscellany, vol. 45, no. 2, 2017, pp. 12–25.
“Refusing the Serious: Authorial Resistance in Ring Lardner’s Prefaces for Scribner’s.” Authorship, vol. 5, no. 2, 2016, pp. 1–11. Reprinted in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, vol. 409, 2021, pp. 78–85.
“‘At Last Everyone Had Something to Talk About’: Gloria’s War in Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned.” Midwestern Miscellany, vol. 44, 2016, pp. 68–81.
“My Own Personal Public: Fitzgerald’s Table of Contents in Tales of the Jazz Age.” F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, vol. 13, 2015, pp. 130–145.
“Excuse the Preface: Hemingway’s Introductions for Other Writers.” Hemingway Review, vol. 34, no. 2, 2015, pp. 72–90.
“Designed to Amuse: Hemingway’s The Torrents of Spring and Intertextual Comedy.” MidAmerica, vol. 41, 2014, pp. 11–22.
Book Chapters (refereed)
“‘You have no idea, reader’: Hemingway, Authorship, and The Torrents of Spring.” The Routledge Companion to Ernest Hemingway, edited by Verna Kale. Routledge [forthcoming 2025]
​
“A Book of Good Stories: Maintenance, Careerism, and Fitzgerald’s Short Story Collections.” The Routledge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Philip McGowan, Ross K. Tangedal, and Helen Turner. Routledge [forthcoming 2025]
​
“Something They Recognize: Working with Robert Frost’s New Hampshire.” Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Sean Heuston. Modern Language Association of America, forthcoming 2024.
​
“1904–1905.” F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography, edited by David A. Rennie and Niklas Salmose. University of Minnesota Press [forthcoming 2023]
​
“Ernest Hemingway.” Handbook of the American Short Story, edited by Erik Redling and Oliver Scheiding. De Gruyter, 2022, pp. 305–318.
​
“Clad in the Beautiful Dress One Expects: Editing and Curating the Harlem Renaissance Text.” Editing the Harlem Renaissance, edited by Joshua M. Murray and Ross K. Tangedal. Clemson University Press, 2021, pp. 63–83.
“Hemingway’s Experts: Teaching Race in Death in the Afternoon and Green Hills of Africa.” Teaching Hemingway and Race, edited by Gary Edward Holcomb. Kent State University Press, 2018, pp. 29–40.
“That Time in Chicago: Midwestern Memory in Nella Larsen’s Passing.” A Scattering Time: How Modernism Met Midwestern Culture, edited by Sara Kosiba. Hastings College Press, 2018, pp. 17–31.
“A Few Practical Things: Death in the Afternoon and Hemingway’s Natural Pedagogy.” Teaching Hemingway and the Natural World, edited by Kevin Maier. Kent State University Press, 2018, pp. 178–191.
editorial experience
Associate Volume Editor, Hemingway Letters Project, Pennsylvania State University (2018–present)
Publisher & Advisory Editor, Midwest Review (2022–present)
Volume Advisor, Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (2019–2021)
Volume Advisor, Children’s Literature Review (2019–2020)
Essays Section Editor, Scholarly Editing, Association for Documentary Editing (2019–2021)
Guest Editor (w/ Andy Oler), Midwestern Miscellany, vol. 48, no. 1, 2020
Guest Editor, Midwestern Miscellany, vol. 45, no. 2, 2017
​
fellowships, grants, & Awards
Nominee, University Service Award (UWSP), 2022
Nominee (w/ Joshua M. Murray), SAMLA Studies Book Award, Editing the Harlem Renaissance
(Clemson UP 2021), South Atlantic Modern Language Association, 2022
COLS Fund for Innovation Award ($1,220), College of Letters and Science (UWSP), 2022
L & S Enhancement Grant ($1,150), College of Letters and Science, UWSP, 2020
University Scholar Award ($1,000), UWSP, 2019
Lewis-Reynolds-Smith Founders Fellowship ($1,000), Ernest Hemingway Society, 2019
L & S Enhancement Grant ($2,600), College of Letters and Science, UWSP, 2019
Summer Publishing Fellowship ($12,000), College of Letters and Science, UWSP, 2018
Nominee, University Scholar Award, UWSP, 2018
New Faculty Research Grant ($3,000), College of Letters and Science, UWSP, 2017
Toerne Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation ($500), Dept. of English (KSU), 2016
Merton Humanities Fellowship ($24,000), Dept. of English (MU), 2015
Kenneth R. Pringle Dissertation Fellowship ($7500), Dept. of English (KSU), 2015
Lewis-Reynolds-Smith Founders Fellowship ($1000), Ernest Hemingway Society, 2014
Hemingway Research Grant ($1000), John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, 2014
Dissertation Research Award ($1000), Graduate Student Senate (KSU), 2014
​
courses taught (UWSP)
Advanced Freshman English
Book and Publication Design
Book History
Creative Nonfiction
Editing and Publishing
Editorial Process: Theory and Practice
Freshman English
Intermediate Composition
Major Authors: Ernest Hemingway & F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Profession of Authorship
Publication for Teachers
Senior Honors Project: Product
Senior Honors Project: Research
Small Press Management
Sophomore English
Workshop in English
Writing Internship
​