Eric Murphy Selinger earned his BA in English from Harvard University in 1986, and his PhD from UCLA in 1993. His research interests focus on issues of love, desire, and literary pleasure, which he explores through the study of popular romance fiction and modern poetry.
Since the publication of his monograph What Is It Then Between Us? Traditions of Love in American Poetry (Cornell UP, 1998), Selinger has co-edited five collections of essays: Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Commentary, and Reflections (UPNE/Brandeis, 2000); Ronald Johnson: Life and Works (National Poetry Foundation, 2008); New Approaches to Popular Romance Fiction (Mcfarland, 2012); Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom (Ashgate, 2016); and The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction (Routledge, 2021).
In 2009, Selinger co-founded the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, since 2010 he has served as Executive Editor of the Association's peer-reviewed, Open Access on-line journal, the Journal of Popular Romance Studies. He has spoken at and helped to organize many national and international conferences on the representation of romantic love in global popular culture.
In the early 2000s, with grant support from the National Endowment from the Humanities, Selinger led four NEH seminars for K-12 teachers (Say Something Wonderful: Teaching the Pleasures of Poetry) and a year-long local workshop for middle-school teachers on poetry pedagogy. He continues to speak on poetry at area high schools, libraries, and community organizations.
When not working on poetry or popular culture, Selinger plays banjo in Heavy Shtetl, a local klezmer band, and he is the principal lyricist, rhythm guitarist, and part-time front man for the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation's in-house parody band, the Alte Rockers.
Courses Taught: Introduction to Literature; Literature Since 1900; Popular Romance Fiction; Modern Poetry
Teaching Specialties: poetry and popular genre fiction