Educational Background- Ph.D., 20th Century British Literature, The University of Newcastle, UK, 2010
- Master of Arts, Anglo-Irish Literature, Trinity College, Dublin, 2003
- Bachelor of Arts, English, Wake Forest University, 1988
- Master of Arts, English, Duquesne University, 1993
Professional Background- Stephen Graf was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Army ROTC scholarship as an undergraduate. He was a Distinguished Military Graduate and served as a Captain in the United States Army Reserves. In the private sector, he has worked for Integon Insurance, the PRiory Hoispitality Group, and SEIS Public Relations firm in Madrid, Spain. He has lived in San Francisco where he taught high school and wrote for SFLive. He holds a Masters Degrees in English from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, an MPhil in Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College, Dublin, and a PhD in British Literature from the University of Newcastle in England. He currently teaches writing and literature courses at Robert Morris University and the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Stephen's long, scholarly essay, "You Call this `Freedom? The Fight to Publish and Produce Samuel Becketts First Full-length Play," which includes a great deal of original research, appeared in the 2014 issue of New England Theatre Journal (Boston College). His long scholarly essay, "Beckett and Begrudgery: The Concept of Resentment in Samuel Beckett?s Molloy " will appear in The Spring 2015 issue of Sage Open (a double-blind, online scholarly journal). His work has twice been featured in The Beckett Circle. He has also presented at conferences in the United States, Ireland, England and Portugal. Most recently he presented a paper and co-chaired two panels at the South Atlantic MLA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in November 2014.
- In the realm of creative writing, Stephen has more than thirty publication credits for short fiction and creative non-fiction including AIM (Magazine), Cicada, The Southern Review, The Chrysalis Reader (twice), Fiction, the New Works Review, The Broadkill Review, SNReview, and The Black Mountain Review in Ireland. He was awarded an honorable mention in the Byline Flash Fiction contest and was a finalist in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open. His short story "Hadamard's Billiards", which won the Editor's Choice award in the Spring 2010 issue of The Minnetonka Review, was awarded an Honorable Mention for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. His story River Rats won the Editors Choice award in the Spring 2012 issue of the Willow Review. Most recently, his work has appeared in The Wisconsin Review (Fall 2012), The Chrysalis Reader (Winter 2013), the Willow Review (Spring 2013), The Lakeview Review (Fall 2013), Birch Book Presss Christmas in the Wild Anthology (Fall 2013), Xavier Review (Winter 2013/14). His story Einsteins iPod, published in the Summer 2013 issue of Philadelphia Stories, was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Stephen's short novella, The Secret Life of Seals, was published in weekly serial format in Straylight magazines online journal spanning the Fall 2013 to the Winter 2014, and he had a story appear in the Spring 2014 issue of the Art Times. His screenplay, "Three Hundred Years in Paradise" was a semi-finalist (top 30 out of more than 3100 entries) in the drama category of the screenplay competition at the 2014 Austin Film Festival.
Area of Expertise/Research- Modern and Contemporary literature (British, Anglo-Irish, and American), Philosophy in Literature,
European Modernism, Socio-historical contexts in Fiction, The Novel, Creative Writing, Composition.
Publications-
“You
Call this ‘Freedom’? The Fight to Publish and Produce Samuel Beckett’s First
Full-length Play.” Published in December 2014 issue of the New England Theatre Journal, Boston College.
- “Beckett and Begrudgery: The Concept of Resentment in Samuel Beckett’s Molloy.” To be published in Spring 2015 issue of SAGE Open (double blind, refereed online scholarly journal).
-
“The Birth of Begrudgery: A Study of Resentment in 18th and 19th
Century Irish Literature.” Currently
under consideration by the South Atlantic Review
(published by
South Atlantic Modern Language Association).
- “The ‘little birds of interpretation’: British and American
Remainders in the English Translations of Samuel Beckett’s Eleutheria.” Currently under
consideration by Papers on Language &
Literature, Southern Illinois University.
- “An Oxymoronic Pair: Michael Brodsky on Writing
and Publication.” Interview. Home
Planet News, High Falls, NY Winter 2015.
- “Seeing ‘the boards’: An Interview with Vahid
Rahbani on the Iranian Production of Eleutheria.” Published
in The Beckett Circle. Samuel Beckett Society. Summer/Fall 2013.
- “'Fiendishly Deadpan Pleasure': Michael Brodsky
reflects on Translating Eleutheria.” Interview published in The Beckett Circle. Samuel Beckett Society. Fall 2012.
-
“Lawndarts.” Essay, creative non-fiction. The Southern
Review, Louisiana State University, Summer 2004.
Presentations- 2014 - "Samuel Beckett and Rudolf Steiner: A Youthful Dalliance or Lasting Influence?" SAMLA Conference. (Organized 2 panels and serving as co-chair of both). Atlanta, GA. November 2014.
- 2013 - "Crossed in Translation: Comparing Bermel, Brodsky, Gontarski and Wright's Interpretations of Samuel Beckett's Eleutheria." SAMLA Conference. (Organized panel and served as chair). Atlanta, GA. November 2013.
- 2012 - "You Call this Freedom?: The Strange Tale of Samuel Beckett's Eleutheria." SAMLA Conference. (Also served as panel secretary). Durham, NC. November 2012.
- 2012 - "'Postmortems, irretrievable': Michael Brodsky?s Translation of Beckett?s Eleutheria." Beckett and the `State? of Ireland Conference. UCD, Dublin, Ireland. July 2012.
- 2011 - "Samuel Beckett and the Uses and Disadvantages of History in the Irish Free State.? Beckett, Memory & Archive panel. SAMLA Conference. Atlanta, GA. November 2011.
- 2011 - "'Pronouns and other parts of blather': The Aftermath of Samuel Beckett?s Assault on the Literary Subject." Hawaii Intl. Conf. on Arts & Humanities. Honolulu, HI. January 2011.
- 2008 - "Nietzsche & The Dystopian Anti-Ireland of Samuel Beckett?s Molloy.? International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures Conference, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. August 2008.
- 2007 - "Begrudgery and Brehon Law: A Short History of Resentment in Irish Literature.? Friends and Foes Conference, Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. November 2007.
- 2007 - "'A fart in the corduroys?: Nietzsche, Beckett and Cultural Philistinism in the Saorstat.? North East Irish Culture Network 5th Annual Conference, Sunderland University. Sunderland, UK. Nov. 2007.
- 2006 - "Beckett and Begrudgery: The Concept of Resentment in Molloy.? MPCA Conference, Kansas City, MO. October 2006.
