Campus News

Rockford, Ill., –Rockford University Associate Professor of English Michael A. Perry, Ph.D., and Patrick McAleer, Ph.D., (Inver Hills Community College) have published a new book titled Stephen King’s Modern Macabre: Essays on the Later Works that focuses on some of the recent works of writer Stephen King. The publication is currently available for purchase on Amazon.
Dr. Perry has long been a student of King’s writings. In 2006, at the National Popular Culture and American Culture Conference in Atlanta, he presented his first paper on Stephen King in which he paired King with Toni Morrison in order to disrupt the boundaries between popular and literary fiction. Over the next several years, Dr. Perry presented several more papers on Stephen King, including one pairing him with Mark Twain. Out of those presentations came one of the book’s chapters, “King Me: Inviting New Perceptions and Purposes of the Popular and Horrific into the College Classroom.”

‌From the back cover: “As Stephen King has continued to publish numerous works beyond the many high points of his career, in the 1980s, scholarship has not always kept up with his output.  This volume presents 13 essays on many of King’s recent writings that have not received the critical attention of his earlier works. This collection is grouped into three categories – ‘King in the World Around Us,’ ‘Spotlight on The Dark Tower,’ and ‘Writing into the Millennium’; each examines an aspect of King’s contemporary canon that has yet to be analyzed.”

Dr. Perry has taught at Rockford University since 2008 and is currently Associate Professor of English and chair of the department. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Augustana College (Sioux Falls, S.D.), his master’s degree from University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN), and his doctoral degree from Arizona State University. Dr. Perry’s teaching interests include African American literature, American literature, popular culture studies, creative writing and composition. Dr. Perry also hosts the annual “Read Aloud of Black American Voices” each February.  He is currently at work on a science fiction/fantasy novel and continues to present at the Popular Culture and American Culture Association National Convention.