Quinlan, Kieran 1945–

(Patrick Kieran Quinlan)

PERSONAL:

Born September 1, 1945, in Dublin, Ireland; son of Edmund Quinlan and Jo Danaher Ryan; married Mary Kaiser (a poet), August 17, 1991; children: Anna and David. Education: Oxford University, B.A., 1977; Vanderbilt University, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Birmingham, AL. Office— Department of English, University of Alabama at Birmingham, HB 215, 1530 3rd Ave. S., Birmingham, AL 35294-1260; fax: 205-975-8125. E-mail— kquinlan@uab.edu.

CAREER:

Academician and writer. University of Alabama at Birmingham, professor of English, 1986—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Jules and Frances Landry Award, Louisiana State University Press, 2004, for Strange Kin: Ireland and the American South; Irish America magazine named Quinlan one of its twelve "Stars of the South," 2007.

WRITINGS:

John Crowe Ransom's Secular Faith, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1989.

Walker Percy: The Last Catholic Novelist, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1996.

Strange Kin: Ireland and the American South, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and World Literature Today.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kieran Quinlan is an academician. Born in Dublin, Ireland, on September 1, 1945, Quinlan moved to England to pursue his higher education. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and psychology from Oxford University in 1977. Shortly thereafter he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to continue his graduate studies in the United States. Settling at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Quinlan earned a Ph.D. in English literature in 1984. By 1986 he began working at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and eventually became a full professor in the department of English. A few years after commencing work at the university, Quinlan married his wife, the poet Mary Kaiser, on August 17, 1991, and had two children, Anna and David.

Quinlan's academic interests primarily include twentieth-century Irish and American literature with a focus on writers from the American South. He is also interested in researching the life and writings of Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen, the religious beliefs and literature of the Nobel Prize-winning Irish author Seamus Heaney, and the issue of religion in the modern United States political climate. He contributes articles to scholarly periodicals, including Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and World Literature Today, on these topics, as well as reviewing other scholarly books in this area. Administratively, Quinlan is the chair for the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Rhodes Scholarships Committee, an organization to provide scholarships for Americans to pursue a degree at Oxford University with the founding intent to bring together young scholars from around the English-speaking world to foster better understanding among them. Quinlan is also director of the university's Theodore Haddin Humanities Forum, a venue for the public to convene and discuss issues of interest in the humanities. In 2007Irish America magazine named Quinlan one of its twelve "Stars of the South," an honor given to Irish Americans residing in the southern U.S. states who are considered among the best and brightest.

Quinlan published his first book of literary criticism,John Crowe Ransom's Secular Faith, in 1989. This was followed in 1996 by Walker Percy: The Last Catholic Novelist. The book discusses the life and writings of Southern American philosophical novelist Walker Percy. Reviews for the account were mostly positive but with some concerns on balance. Jim Wise, writing in Utopian Studies, thought that "the occasional unevenness of Quinlan's study is overridden by a combination of candor and skepticism which characterizes his personal, yet relatively objective, approach to Percy." Mississippi Quarterly contributor Karl-Heinz Westarp concluded that Quinlan's "book is easily one of the most well-focused and well-argued discussions of Walker Percy as thinker, believer, and novelist."

In 2005 Quinlan published Strange Kin: Ireland and the American South. The book outlines the similarities and shared experiences between these two seemingly disparate regions of the world. Reviews were quite positive for Quinlan's efforts. Margaret Sankey, writing on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, commented that Quinlan's "deft handling of the material, and the marvelous bits of detail he provides … ensure that these provocative chapters will find their way into the way I think about and teach British, American, and Atlantic history." Joseph Michael McFadden noted his "mastery of the literature and history of both regions" in a Journal of Southern History review. McFadden concluded that Strange Kin "is a valuable addition to our knowledge of the Irish in the South and the many connections between the two regions. Many of us who have come to love both regions will strongly relate to the kinships noted and cleverly explained by Quinlan in his book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Birmingham Business Journal, November 13, 2007, Jimmy DeButts, "UAB Professor Named ‘Star of the South’."

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, November, 1996, review of Walker Percy: The Last Catholic Novelist, p. 459; November, 2005, M.J. O'Brien, review of Strange Kin: Ireland and the American South, p. 549.

Christianity and Literature, March 22, 1996, Gerald J. Russello, review of Walker Percy, p. 444.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, September, 2006, Margaret Sankey, review of Strange Kin.

Journal of American History, December, 1997, Nancy L. Roberts, review of Walker Percy, p. 1142.

Journal of American Studies, April, 1998, Gavin Cologne-Brooks, review of Walker Percy, p. 149.

Journal of Southern History, February, 2006, Joseph Michael McFadden, review of Strange Kin, p. 155.

Mississippi Quarterly, winter, 1998, Karl-Heinz Westarp, review of Walker Percy.

Modern Age, spring, 1998, review of Walker Percy.

Utopian Studies, winter, 1999, Jim Wise, review of Walker Percy, p. 256.

World Literature Today, winter, 1997, review of Walker Percy.

ONLINE

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of English Web site,http://www.uab.edu/english/ (November 30, 2007), author profile.