About Me
From Zeugma
"We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know." (W. H. Auden)
Laurel Amtower specializes in medieval literature, with particular interests in fourteenth century England and Italy. After briefly considering a career in music, she abruptly changed course in 1985 after discovering literary theory at UC Irvine--the lit crit capital of America and the recent acquisitor of the late Jacque Derrida and J. Hillis Miller. She quickly finished up her BA in Music and English and departed for the University of Washington (why Washington? The weather, of course), where received her Ph.D. in critical theory and medieval literature. She has since taught at Cal State San Marcos as well as San Diego State, and has published books on reading practices in the late Middle Ages and representations of single women through the early modern period. She is currently working on a new book on Chaucer and his contemporaries, but has never given up her love of music and continues her practice of piano and--less successfully--classical guitar. She faithfully commutes thirty miles each day to SDSU from North County, where she lives with her family and her small menagerie of poorly-behaved pets.
Fairly Decent Historical Fiction
