When did you begin to develop an appreciation for the arts and literature?

In high school I really started enjoying literature. I remember especially liking Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden.” That was a work that really drew me into literature.

Was there a specific moment you realized you wanted to dedicate your time to studying it?

When I went into college, I was one of those people who thought they might major in philosophy, or history, or literature, or religious studies — all sorts of possibilities. But my first English class just grabbed me, and there was no looking back after that. The class was a British survey course, and I loved the romantic poets right away.

​But senior year, I was able to write an honors thesis, and that was my first deep dive into research. I had a lot of fun. When you do a research project like that, you feel like you know more about this topic than anybody on campus, maybe even the professors. That is a great feeling. I took a year off before graduate school, but I think I knew even as an undergraduate student that was the sort of research and writing about literature I wanted to pursue. 

How did you come to specialize in 18th- and 19th-century British literature as an English professor?

I went to graduate school with the intention of focusing on romantic era literature, but then I met a professor I really like who was an 18th-century specialist. I took a lot of classes with him and really grew to like the 18th century as well. 

For job purposes, it made sense to have a broad interest from the 18th century into the early 19th century so that I could say to schools looking for people not only to do research but also teach classes, that I am an expert in these different fields and could teach a lot more classes. 

What led you to take the position of Poetry Editor at The New Criterion?

I have long been a fan of The New Criterion, but especially the poems it publishes. So when Roger Kimble, who is the editor and publisher of The New Criterion, offered this job to me, it was a very easy decision to say yes. I get to select poems to be published in a really important cultural periodical, and it is a great honor.

What is your favorite genre of literature?

One of the people I love studying the most is Scottish romantic poet and novelist Walter Scott. He is not a genre, but I am a great admirer of what he accomplished in perfecting the genre we now know as the historical novel. 

From your recent book, “13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read),” how did you encounter and read these novels, and what about them made you decide to include them?

I wanted to make clear that there are still great novels being written that explore things, topics, and ideas that conservatives are especially interested in exploring or celebrating. And what I was trying to do with the book was bring in a range of writers from different time periods, and novels dealing with a range of topics that would interest conservatives and that reflect conservative themes, ideas, and values. 

Some of the novels I included in this collection I already knew about, but about half of them I hadn’t read until I started research for this book. Either I had heard about them and was meaning to get to them, or people told me about them during the research process, and I was drawn to them after I had read them.

Which novel in your book did you personally find the most profound and why?

“My Ántonia” by Willa Cather. I had read other Cather novels, but I hadn’t read “My Ántonia” until I worked on this project. It is a beautiful novel, a very moving novel that celebrates the possibilities of America in a way that not a lot of great novels do and that really stuck with me. It recognizes the difficulties of success in America, and specifically of immigration and the immigrant experience. It’s not a purely sentimental novel, but it ultimately celebrates those possibilities and is a very powerful novel as a result. 

Do you think there is a certain age readers should be or a maturity level had, when reading the novels in your book? 

These days, there is a huge market for young adult fiction. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but I do think that, as a consequence, high school students are reading fiction that is specially written for them and as a result, they are not really challenging their reading abilities and experiences, and are not immersing themselves in different ways of thinking that they would if they read more adult fiction.

I hope people who homeschool their children, or just want their children reading more mature works of fiction, are able to use my book as a resource to introduce them to some mature but appropriate works.

Is there a novel that you have not yet read but wish to?

There are a million novels I have not yet read but wish to. In the coming months, I am going to read a couple of novels by James Fenimore Cooper about the American Founding. One is called “The Spy,” and the other one is called “Lionel Lincoln; or, The Leaguer of Boston.” Both of these novels are set during the Revolutionary War, so I think they are appropriate to read this year, given the anniversary coming up.