Steven Kellman, Ph.D.
Professor, English
Contact
- MH 4.02.28
- 210-458-4374
- Steven.Kellman@utsa.edu
- MH 4.02.28
- Curriculum Vitae
Bio
A professor of comparative literature at UTSA, where he has taught since 1976, Steven G. Kellman was UTSA’s first Ashbel Smith Professor (1995-2000). He has also taught at the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Irvine and at Bemidji State Minnesota and Tel-Aviv University. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in English and General Literature from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Literature at the University of Sofia and a Fulbright Senior Lectureship at the Tbilisi State University and twice served as Partners of the Americas lecturer in Peru. He was twice awarded the UTSA President’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Recognition of Research Excellence (1990-91, 2005-2006) and once received the campus-wide teaching award (1985-86). He received the COLFA Researcher of the Year Award in 2021. Kellman has served as John E. Sawyer fellow at Harvard University’s Longfellow Institute and has held an NEH research grant, an NEH grant to South Africa, and a Fulbright-Hays grant to China. He was honored with the 2005 Arts and Letters Award of the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and with the 2008 Gemini Ink Literary Excellence Award. He served four terms on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and was honored with the NBCC’s prestigious Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing in 2006. Kellman is the author of Redemption: The Life of Henry Roth (W. W. Norton, 2005), which was honored with the 2005 New York Society Library Award for Biography and was praised in the San Francisco Chronicle as "not only a necessary addition to the annals of American literature, but also a trenchant exploration of the relationship between the horrors of life and the saving power of art." Kellman's other books include Rambling Prose ( 2020), Nimble Tongues: Studies in Literary Translingualism (2020), The Restless Ilan Stavans: Outsider on the Inside (2019), American Suite (2018), The Translingual Imagination (2000), The Plague: Fiction and Resistance (1993), Loving Reading: Erotics of the Text (1985), and The Self‐Begetting Novel (1980). He is editor or co‐editor of The Routledge Handbook of Literary Multilingualism (2021), Switching Languages: Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft (2003), UnderWords: Perspectives on Don DeLillo's Underworld (2002), Torpid Smoke: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (2000), Leslie Fiedler and American Culture (1999), Into The Tunnel: Readings in Gass's Novel (1998), and Perspectives on Raging Bull (1994). He has co-edited special issues of Critical Multilingualism Studies, Studies in the Novel, L2Journal, American Book Review, and Journal of Literary Multilingualism. He is series editor for books on Literary Multilingualism published by Brill.
Research Interests
- Comparative literature
- Modern and contemporary literature
- Prose fiction
- Literary translingualism
- Film
- Biography
Degrees
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley (1972)
M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley (1969)
B.A. in English & General Literature, State University of New York at Binghamton (1967)
M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley (1969)
B.A. in English & General Literature, State University of New York at Binghamton (1967)
Honors and Awards
- Finalist, Kakula Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Book Reviewing, 2023
- Researcher of the Year Award 2019-2020, UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts
- One-week residency as distinguished visiting professor, RUDN (People’s Friendship University of Russia), Moscow, May 22-28, 2019.
- Honorary Editor, Polylinguality and Transcultural Practices (RUDN, Moscow), 2019- .
- McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction 2008, Southwest Review.
- Gemini Ink Award for Literary Excellence, 2008.
- National Book Critics Circle Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, 2007.
- Second Place, Arts Criticism (circ. <60,000), Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, 2007.
- First Place, Arts Criticism (circ. <50,000), Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, 2006.
- New York Society Library Award for Biography, 2006.
- 2005 Arts and Letters Award, San Antonio Public Library Foundation.
- Texas Institute of Letters, 2005- .
- NEH "Extending the Reach" grant, spring, 2001.
- Fulbright Distinguished Chair, University of Sofia, fall, 2000.
- John E. Sawyer Fellow, Longfellow Institute, Harvard University, spring, 1997.
- UTSA COLFA Faculty Development Leave, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2016.
- NEH Summer Seminar, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, June-August, 1996.
- Fulbright-Hays study grant to China, June-July, 1995.
- Board of Directors, National Book Critics Circle, 1996-99,1999-2002, 2009-2012, 2012-2015.
- UTSA President's Distinguished Achievement Award in Recognition of Research Excellence, 1990-91; 2005-2006.
- UTSA Faculty Research Award, 2006, 1997, 1993, 1991.
- Partners of the Americas lecturer in Peru, 1988, 1995.
- 1986 H. L. Mencken Writing Award.
- PEN American Center, 1985 .
- 1985-1986 UTSA Amoco Teaching Award.
- Fulbright Senior Lecturer in American Literature., 1980, U.S.S.R. Tbilisi State University.
- Ford Foundation Special Career Fellow, 1967-72.
