Eloisa James
| Mary Bly | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1962 (age 54–55) Minnesota, U.S. |
| Pen name | Eloisa James |
| Occupation | Professor, novelist |
| Nationality | United States |
| Period | 1999–present |
| Genre |
Historical romance nonfiction |
| Subject | English literature |
| Website | |
| www |
|
Eloisa James is the pen name of Mary Bly (born 1962). She is a tenured professor of English Literature at Fordham University who also writes best-selling Regency and Georgian romance novels under her pen name.
She is the daughter of poet Robert Bly and short-story author Carol Bly.
Mary Bly was born in Minnesota in 1962, the daughter of Robert Bly, winner of the American Book Award for poetry, and Carol Bly, a short story author. She was the inspiration for her mother's essay "The Maternity Wing, Madison, Minnesota," which was published in the anthology Imagining Home: Writing From the Midwest. Her godfather, James Wright, wrote a poem especially for her, which he included in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Collected Poems. Bly has three younger siblings, Bridget, Noah, and Micah.
The Bly family did not own a television, but did own over 5000 books. Robert often read to his children, choosing to expose them to classics such as Beowulf instead of more traditional children's fare. Even at a young age, however, Mary was fascinated with romance. To entertain her siblings during a snowstorm, she built a puppet show, complete with lights, that featured a romance. Several years later, after discovering the romance novels of Georgette Heyer in her local library, Bly convinced her father to allow her to read one romance novel for each classic novel she read.
After graduating from Harvard University, Bly went on to attain an M.Phil. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Yale University. She is a tenured professor lecturing on William Shakespeare at Fordham University in New York City. She has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department, as well as head of Fordham's Creative Writing Program. In addition to publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press, she has published an academic article on 17th century drama in The Publications of the Modern Language Association, the most prestigious journal for English literary studies.
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