Wade, Stephen 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born August 9, 1948, in Leeds, Yorkshire, England; son of Albert and Joyce (Young) Wade; married Kate Walker (a writer); children: Paul.Ethnicity: "White British." Education: Attended University of Leeds and University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; earned B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Rd. W., Westport, CT 06881.E-mail—stephen.wade@attworld.com.

CAREER:

Writer. North Lindsey College (secondary school), lecturer in English, 1974-95; University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, senior lecturer in English, 1995-2003.

MEMBER:

Crime Writers Association.

WRITINGS:

Churwell Poems, Littlewood Press (Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England), 1987.

Christopher Isherwood, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1991.

The Imagination in Transit, Sheffield Academic Press (Sheffield, England), 1996.

More on the Word-Hoard, Paupers Press (London, England), 1997.

Reading the Applause, National Association of Writers in Education (Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire, England), 1999.

Jewish American Literature since 1945, Fitzroy Dearborn (New York, NY), 1999.

Write Yourself a New Life, How to Pathways, 2000.

(Editor) Gladsongs and Gatherings: Poetry and Its Social Context in Liverpool since the 1960s, Liverpool University Press (Liverpool, England), 2001.

Somewhere Else: Poems, Mellen Poetry Press (Lewiston, NY), 2001.

In My Own Shire: Region and Belonging in British Writing, 1840-1970, Praeger Publishers (Westport, CT), 2002.

The Forms of Things Unknown, Paupers Press (London, England), 2003.

Unsolved Yorkshire Murders, Wharncliffe (Barnsley,South Yorkshire, England), 2004.

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Halifax, Wharncliffe (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England), 2004.

A Good Stretch (documentary), Yorkshire Art Circus (Castleford, West Yorkshire, England), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Killers in the North East, for Black and White Books (Edinburgh, Scotland); editing a book on Cynthia Ozick.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stephen Wade told CA: "I write because it is the fullest expression of the self: our way of relating to our communal instinct and our desire to share and bear witness. I write history in many of its forms, and this is because time will remain themystery for us all.

"My influences are the rich, life-soaked words of the people around me and the people speaking from the past. In terms of specific writers, I owe a profound debt to John Cheever and to Seamus Heaney. Among historians and documentarians I re-read E.P. Thompson and John Berger.

"My writing process is one of writing for long, intense stretches, then editing on paper before the screen. I like to start short and go shorter in documentary, and to expand gradually in historical work.

"The inspiration behind my personal aesthetics is the ongoing evidence in humanity of the strength to love being stronger than the will to crush and destroy. This means I look for life ‘on the edge’ when I take on a project, whether this is a detective persevering in a search for justice or a poet reminding us of the fascination of the ordinary. For me, curiosity is our one basic creative virtue."