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Biography

J. Scott Bryson is the author of numerous books and articles and Professor of English at Mount Saint Mary’s University, where he teaches on a wide range of subjects, including U.S. literature, Los Angeles literature, and mythology.

He earned his PhD in English from the University of Kentucky with an emphasis in Social and Environmental Theory. In the early 2000s, he became a leading scholar in the field of ecopoetry, which he helped establish within the larger field of literary ecocriticism. He has written and edited foundational works on contemporary nature poetry, including Ecopoetry: A Critical Introduction (2002) and his 2005 monograph, The West Side of Any Mountain: Place, Space, and Ecopoetry, both of which continue to be important touchstones for ecocritical scholars.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, Dr. Bryson’s research continued to explore topics of space and place, but his perspective shifted to the “place” of his students, delving into Los Angeles literature, history, and the environment. During this time he published important works in the field of Los Angeles literary studies, including an essay in the Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles and an often-quoted piece in American Literary History.

Over the last several years, Dr. Bryson has focused on various ghostwriting and fiction projects and written dozens of country heartbreak songs. His recent academic work has centered on the subject of myth. He is currently working on a second PhD, concentrating on narrative as it relates to what Carl Jung called “the second half of life.”

Publications

Books

Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century American Prose Nature Writing.  Greenwood Press.  Contributing Editor with Daniel Patterson and Roger Thompson.  2008.

Twentieth-century American Nature Poetry.  A volume for the Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Gale Research. Co-editor with Roger Thompson.  2008.

The West Side of Any Mountain:  Place, Space, and Ecopoetry. University of Iowa Press.  2005.

Twentieth-century American Nature Writing:  Prose.  A volume for the Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Gale Research. Co-editor with Roger Thompson.  2003.

Ecopoetry:  A Critical Introduction.  Editor.  Salt Lake City:  University of Utah Press, 2002.

Articles in Books

“Surf, Sagebrush, and Cement Rivers: Imagining and Reimagining Our Connections to Nature in Los Angeles Literature.”  Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles.  Kevin McNamara, ed.  Cambridge University Press, 2009.

"Science, Art, Nature, and the Lighthouse:  Modernism and the Desire for Order."  Modernism.  Vivian Liska and Astradur Eysteinsson, eds.  Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Press, 2008.

"Children of the Asphalt:  Teaching the Nature of Los Angeles Literature."  Teaching North American Environmental Literature.  Fred Waage, Laird Christensen, and Mark Long, eds.  MLA Press. 2008.

"Introduction."  with Roger Thompson.  Twentieth-century American Nature Poetry.  A volume for the Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Co-editor with Roger Thompson.  2008.

"Introduction."  with Roger Thompson.  Twentieth-century American Nature Writing:  Prose.  A volume for the Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Co-editor with Roger Thompson.  2003.

"'Between the Earth and Silence':  Place and Space in the Poetry of W. S. Merwin."  Ecopoetry:  A Critical Introduction.  J. Scott Bryson, ed.  University of Utah Press, 2002.

"Introduction."  Ecopoetry:  A Critical Introduction.  J. Scott Bryson, ed.  University of Utah Press, 2002.

"Seeing the West Side of Any Mountain:  Thoreau and the New Ecological Poetry."  Thoreau's Sense of Place:  Essays in American Environmental Writing.  Richard J. Schneider, ed.  University of Iowa Press, 1999.

Selected Journal Articles

“I’ve Seen the Future and It Will Be: The Afrofuturism of Prince.” Mythological Studies Journal. 7.2. 2024.

"Los Angeles Literature:  Exiles, Natives, and (Mis)Representation."  American Literary History.  16.4.  (2004):  707-718.

"Seeing the West Side of Any Mountain:  Thoreau and the New Ecological Poetry."  Jack Magazine.  2003.

"Finding the Way Back:  Place and Space in the Poetry of Joy Harjo."  MELUS:  Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States.  27.3.  Fall 2002.

"'All finite things reveal infinitude':  Place and Space in Ecological Poetry."  Environment and Behavior.  2002.

"Partnership, Narrative, and Environmental Justice:  An Interview with Carolyn Merchant."  Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.  Fall, 2001.

"The Ambivalent Discourse:  Language and Human/Nonhuman Relations."  Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.  Fall, 2001.

"Transaction, Voice, and Magic In the Introductory Composition Classroom."  The National Forum of Teacher Educators.  9.4 (1999).

"'This Absolutely Matters':  An Interview with W. S. Merwin." with Tony Brusate.  Limestone.  6.1 (1998): 1-8.

"The Text as Sacrificial Victim:  A Girardian Reading of Thomas Pynchon's V."  Kentucky Philological Review.  11 (1996): 19-27.

Selected Conference Presentations

Literary California 1884-2022: Spaces of Exception, Spaces of Disaster. Naples, Italy, 2025. L’Orientale University. “Myth, Geography, and Geometry: Finding Meaning in Los Angeles and its Literature .” Keynote address.

The Narrative Environments of Los Angeles. University of Southern California, 2024. “Myth, Geography, and Geometry: Finding Meaning in Los Angeles Literature.” Keynote Address. 

Natures 2011.  Riverside, CA, 2011. “Place, Space, and Los Angeles:  Defining ‘Nature’ in the City of Freeways and Concrete.” Distinguished Speaker, Keynote Address.

ASLE:  National Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.  Boston, 2003.  "Children of the Asphalt:  Teaching the Nature of Los Angeles Literature."  Presented and chaired.

ALA:  American Literature Association Symposium.  Twentieth-century American Poetry:  Developments and Definitions.  Long Beach, 2003.  "Place, Space, and the Civilization-Wilderness Problematic in the Poetry of Wendell Berry."  Also organized and chaired the "Ecopoetry Roundtable."

MELUS:  The National Conference on Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States.  Knoxville, 2001.  "Finding the Way Back:  Place and Space in the Poetry of Joy Harjo." 

ASLE.  Flagstaff, 2001.  "'Between the Earth and Silence':  Postmodern-Ecological Tension in the Poetry of W. S. Merwin." 

MLA.  Chicago, 1999.  "Seeing the West Side of Any Mountain:  Thoreau and the New Ecological Poetry." 

ASLE.  Kalamazoo, 1999.  "Place, Space, and the Pathetic Fallacy in the Poetry of Mary Oliver."

ASLE.  Kalamazoo, 1999.  "The Theory and Practice of Ecopoetics:  A Panel Discussion."

MLA.  San Francisco, 1998.  "Finding the Way Back:  Nature and the Self in Contemporary Native and Euro-American Poetry."

MLA.  San Francisco, 1998.  "Contemporary American Ecopoetry" session, Proposed and chaired. 

South Atlantic MLA.  Atlanta, 1998.  "Forgetting Nothing:  Joy Harjo and Contemporary Nature Poetry."

ASLE.  Missoula, Montana, 1997.  "Prometheanism, Vision, and Artistic Environ-ment in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse." 

Greening of the Campus:  Global Solutions.  "Reading and Writing the Environment:  An Advanced Composition Course." Muncie, Indiana, 1996.

The 5th Annual Conference on Language and Literature.  Waco, Texas, 1996.  "Disrupting the Text and Creating Space for New Lines:  The Sacrificial Role of the Poet in William Carlos Williams' Paterson." 

Young Scholars Symposium.  Waco, Texas, 1993.  "Death and the Life Cycle in Whitman's 'Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking.'"