Education:
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1988
M.A.,  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1982
B.A., California State University at Chico, 1980

Courses Frequently Taught:
Gateway 100: Sitcoms & Society
English 201: Writing Fiction
English 211: Newswriting & Reporting
English 212: Editorial Writing & Reviewing
English 272: Travel Course (writing emphasis)
English 301: Seminar in Creative Writing (fiction)
English 315: Seminar in Public Relations
English 325: Feature Writing & In-Depth Reporting
English 335: Internship in Professional Writing
English 480: Senior Seminar (American Magical Realism)

Honors/Awards:
Illinois Wesleyan University Award for Teaching Excellence (Pantagraph Award, 2004)
Illinois College Press Association Meritorious Service Award (1999)
Fulbright Scholar, University of the West Indies, Barbados (1995)
Graduate of the Last Decade Award, UWM Alumni Association (1992)
Editor’s Award, the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses  (1990)

Selected Publications:
—Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway. Nashville: Turner Publishing Co., 2009.
—“Updike, Hawthorne, and American Literary History.” The Cambridge Companion to John Updike. Ed. Stacey Olster. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006. 122-33.
—“21 Tweaks to a Better Tale.” The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing. Ed. Meg Leder and Jack Heffron. Cincinatti, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. 228-34.
—Remembering Ernest Hemingway. With Frank Simons. Key West: The Ketch & Yawl Press, 1999.
—“The Sun Also Rises as ‘A Greater Gatsby’: ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?” French Connections: Hemingway and Fitzgerald Abroad. Ed. Jackson Bryer and J. Gerald Kennedy. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998. 257-75.
—“Verbal Vermeer: Updike’s Middle-Class Portraiture.” Rabbit Tales: Poetry and Politics in John Updike’s ‘Rabbit’ Novels. Ed. Lawrence R. Broer. Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press, 1998. 207-30.
—Conversations with John Updike. Ed. with introduction. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1994.
—Courbet, on the Rocks (poems). Fox River Grove: White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 1994.
— “Standing in the Reception Line at the Wedding of My Ex-Wife” (poem). Men of Our Time: An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America. Ed. Fred Moramarco and Al Zolynas. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 1992. 322-23.

Faculty Status:
Tenured, at IWU since 1988; next leave, 2011-12

Professional and Personal:
I write everything—poetry, fiction, journalism, reviews, literary criticism, and creative non-fiction—and I encourage my students to do the same. In previous lives I was a feature writer for a short-lived Milwaukee newspaper, director of the Hemingway Days Writers’ Workshop & Conference in Key West, editor-publisher of the award-winning arts journal Clockwatch Review, and a member of the literature panel of the Illinois Arts Council. Now I write movie reviews and I’m a member of the Online Film Critics Society. I also remain active in Hemingway and Updike scholarship, and was elected president of The John Updike Society, which organized this past May in Boston. Among my numerous interests are reading, writing, movies, classic TV shows, antiques, art, gardening, home improvement, water sports, racquetball, ping-pong, billiards, travel, cooking, wines, and cheering for da Bears, Cubs, and Bulls.

http://iwu.edu/~jplath