Dr Laura Dietz

Laura is a novelist who combines writing fiction with the study of reading, science in literature, and digital literary culture.

laura.dietz@aru.ac.uk

Background

Laura writes novels and studies novels, publishing fiction alongside research on topics such as e-novel readership, the digital short story, online literary magazines and the changing definition of authorship in the digital era. She is a Co-Director of the Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy, serves on the operations group of StoryLab, and is editor of the Digital Literary Culture gathering of the Publishing and Book Culture series of Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press).

Research interests

• The novel, particularly innovative forms
• Digital reading
• Digital literary culture
• Modern literary magazines
• Historical fiction
• Creative writing
• Publishing
• Cognitive approaches to literature
• The presentation of science in contemporary fiction

Areas of research supervision

Laura would welcome further PhD applications in creative writing, publishing, or book culture, particularly those relating to her research interests (see above).

Current PhD 1st supervisions include:

• Reprising Middlemarch: plural intertextualities in the creation of The Golden Nautilus, a Neo-Victorian novel
• Retelling in the Slipstream: Men Who Lose Their Shadows - from Hans Christian Andersen to Haruki Murakami
• Literary Communities & Cultures in the Digital Space: An Inquiry into the Reading Experience on YouTube
• A Transformative Works novel, taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as imagined by Joss Whedon in The Avengers (2012), creating a novel exploring affective hermeneutics through domesticity and examining contemporary issues through social lenses
• An exploration of the efficacy of non-realist fiction as a therapeutic agent for female depression
• Stan and Jack: Exploring representations of the writer and artist in the neo-classical phase of the cinematic biopic

Qualifications

• PhD Publishing Studies, UCL
• MA Writing, Nottingham Trent
• PGCE Higher Education, Anglia Ruskin
• BA English, Stanford

Memberships, editorial boards

• Secretary of the Association for Publishing Education
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers
• Member of the British Society for Literature and Science
• Member of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
• Member of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature
• Member of the Society of Authors
• Editor of the Digital Literary Culture gathering of the Publishing and Book Culture series of Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press)

Selected recent publications

Dietz, L., 2019. ‘Who are you calling an author?’ (Version reprinted with permission) In: C. Davis, ed. Print Cultures: A Reader in Theory and Practice. London: Palgrave.

Dietz, L., 2018. The short story and digital media. In: P. Delaney and A. Hunter, eds. The Edinburgh Companion to the Short Story in English. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.

Dietz, L., 2015. Chapter 22: My Later Endeavours (chapter of Inventions). New Writing, 12(3), pp. 304-310.

Dietz, L. Warwick, C. and Rayner, S., 2015. Auditioning for permanence: Reputation and legitimacy of electronically distributed novels. Logos. Logos, 26(4), pp. 22-36.

Dietz, L., 2015. Who are you calling an author? Changing definitions of career legitimacy for novelists in the digital era. In: Evans, N and Davidson, G. (Eds.). Literary Careers in the Modern Era. London: Palgrave.

Dietz, L., 2014. Online vs. print reputation of literary fiction magazines. Short Fiction in Theory and Practice. 4(1). pp. 7-21.

Dietz, L., 2013. Consider. New Writing. 10(3), pp.261-266.

Dietz, L., 2012. Adaptive Fiction: How can evolutionary and cognitive approaches to literature impact creative writing? New Writing. 9(2), pp.147-155. 

Dietz, L., 2007. In the Tenth House. New York: Crown (Penguin Random House).

Recent presentations and conferences

‘Migrations of Feeling: Emotional Responses to Typeface from Print to E-book’. Presented at Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) annual conference, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, July 18 2019.

'"I tend to prefer real books to e-books": negotiating the realness and bookness of e-novels.' Invited talk at the Open University History of Books and Reading Seminar, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 15 April 2019.

‘Digital Bibliotherapy.’ Presentation as part of ‘Bibliotherapy for wellbeing: poetry and prose as Prozac?’ event at Cambridge Festival of Science, 25 March 2019.

'"I liked them a lot…but I feel like I don’t know them fully?": Implications for Bibliotherapy of Recent Research on Immersion and Engagement with E-Novels.' Presented at The Book as Cure: Bibliotherapy and Literary Caregiving from the First World War to the Present conference, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 14 September 2018.

‘Impersonal Libraries: readers’ experiences of “owning” digital novels’. Presented at 16th Conference of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature (IGEL), University of Stavanger, July 25 2018.

‘Owning the “Unreal”: keeping and collecting digital novels.’ Presented at DH_Budapest_2018 Conference, Centre for Digital Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University, 29 May 2018.

‘Love and the E-book: how readers harness evolving book technologies to demonstrate and deepen attachment to novels.’ Presented at Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) annual conference, University of Victoria, June 11 2017.

‘Loving Novels on Screen: E-books, Affect and the Digital Bibliophile.’ Presented at StoryLab symposium, Anglia Ruskin University, June 6 2017.

‘Protecting Books from Women: Gender, Bibliophila, and Feeling for Books on Screen.’ Presented at New Directions in Print Culture conference, Oxford Brookes University, May 9 2017.

‘Credible Texts.’ Presented at National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) annual conference, Stratford-upon-Avon, November 11 2016.

‘Writing Digital Futures.’ Panel, part of a linked series of talks and creative writing workshops, Cambridge Festival of Ideas, October 28 2016.

‘Speaking the Language of Amazon.’ Presented at By the Book conference, Villa Finaly, Florence, June 23 2016.

'"Transaction" in Transition: Digital Novels and the Evolution of Epitext.' Presented at Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) annual conference, McGill University and Universite de Sherbrooke, July 9 2015.

‘Barbarians in the Temple: Bibliophilia and the “Bookness” of Electronic Novels.’ Presented at Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) annual conference, University of Antwerp, September 19 2014.

‘Life as a novel after death as a book? Reputation and legitimacy of post-print literature.’ Presented at By the Book conference, Villa Finaly, Florence, May 23 2014.

‘Science as the Spark: literature inspired by Science’, panel at Cambridge Science Festival, March 20 2014.

'"Science" Fiction: Scientism and the historical novel.' Presented at National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) annual conference, York, November 15 2013.

‘The Post-Print Literary Magazine.’ Presented at National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) annual conference, York, November 11 2011.

‘INcredible: Stories in Science.’ Panel at Cambridge Festival of Ideas, October 26 2011.

‘Online versus Print Reputation of Literary Fiction Magazines.’ Presented at Out of Print: the Evolution of 20th Century Writing conference, University of East Anglia, September 16 2011.

‘Adaptive Fiction: how can authors respond to questions on the evolutionary purpose of fiction?’ Presented at British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) annual conference, Cambridge University, April 9 2011.