About

Chris Gavaler’s Superhero Comics was published by Bloomsbury in 2017 and his On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1 by the University of Iowa Press in 2015. Superhero Thought Experiments, co-authored with Nathaniel Goldberg, is forthcoming from Iowa in fall 2019, and Creating Comics: A Writer’s and Illustrator’s Craft Guide, co-authored with Leigh Ann Beavers, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2020. His essays on superheroes and comics appear in Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of American Culture, Political Science, ImageText, Image [&] Narrative, Foundation, International Journal of Comic Art, European Comic Art, and The Comics Grid.

His short fiction appears in over three dozen national literary journals, including Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Hudson Review, and Witness. His novel-in-stories School for Tricksters was published by Southern Methodist University Press (2011) and his romantic suspense novel Pretend I’m Not Here by HarperCollins (2002). He is also a five-time winner of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival’s Outstanding Playwright award. He received an MFA from the University of Virginia and is an associate professor of English at W&L University in Lexington, VA, where he teaches contemporary fiction, comics, and creative writing. He is the comics editor for Shenandoah and reviews comics at PopMatters.com.

Contact: chris@gavaler.com