Born in New Jersey, P.F. Kluge attended Kenyon and the University of Chicago, and served in the U.S. Peace Corps (in Micronesia). He has worked as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and as an editor at Life magazine. He has written for numerous publications, including Playboy, Rolling Stone and Smithsonian and is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler. As Writer-in-Residence at Kenyon, Kluge specializes in the reading and writing of American literature. He is a reporter, a writer and a teacher.
Education
1967 — Doctor of Philosophy from Univ Chicago
1965 — Master of Arts from Univ Chicago
1964 — Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College, Phi Beta Kappa
Courses Recently Taught
ENGL 200
Introduction to Fiction Writing
ENGL 200
This course introduces students to the elements of fiction writing. While each section of the course will vary in approach and structure, activities and assignments may include intensive reading, workshops, writing, short and flash fiction, and exercises emphasizing various aspects of fiction such as place, dialogue and character. Students should check the online schedule for specific descriptions of each section. Admission to this course is open, though students may not take this course in the first semester of their first year. Seats are reserved for students in each class year. Offered annually in multiple sections.
ENGL 289
American Novel, 1950–Present
ENGL 289
This course involves close examination of 10 American novels written after World War II. Consideration will be given to styles and methods: the authorial choices that make the novels what they are. Beyond this, however, we'll examine these novels as comments on American life. The reading list may be organized around a specific theme — politics, ethnic experience, sport, small-town life — or a combination of themes. In any case, the study of authors whose place in or out of the canon has not yet been determined should give the class an opportunity for intelligent, critical reading. This counts toward the post-1900 requirement. Open only to first-year and sophomore students who have taken ENGL 103 or 104.
ENGL 493
Individual Study
ENGL 493
Individual study in English is a privilege reserved for senior majors who want to pursue a course of reading or complete a writing project on a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum. Because individual study is one option in a rich and varied English curriculum, it is intended to supplement, not take the place of, coursework, and it cannot normally be used to fulfill requirements for the major. An IS will earn the student 0.5 units of credit, although in special cases it may be designed to earn 0.25 units. To qualify to enroll in an individual study, a student must identify a member of the English department willing to direct the project. In consultation with that faculty member, the student must write a 1–2 page proposal for the IS that the department chair must approve before the IS can go forward. The chair’s approval is required to ensure that no single faculty member becomes overburdened by directing too many IS courses. In the proposal, the student should provide a preliminary bibliography (and/or set of specific problems, goals and tasks) for the course, outline a specific schedule of reading and/or writing assignments, and describe in some detail the methods of assessment (e.g., a short story to be submitted for evaluation biweekly; a thirty-page research paper submitted at course’s end, with rough drafts due at given intervals). Students should also briefly describe any prior coursework that particularly qualifies them for their proposed individual studies. The department expects IS students to meet regularly with their instructors for at least one hour per week, or the equivalent, at the discretion of the instructor. The amount of work submitted for a grade in an IS should approximate at least that required, on average, in 400-level English courses. In the case of group individual studies, a single proposal may be submitted, assuming that all group members will follow the same protocols. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of their proposed individual study well in advance, preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval before the registrar’s deadline.
Academic & Scholarly Achievements