Michael Livingston is a historian, a professor of
medieval literature
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...
, and a
historical fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
novelist. His 2015 debut novel, ''
The Shards of Heaven'', was followed by two sequels.
Early life, education and career
Originally from Colorado,
Livingston has a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in history from
Baylor University, an
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in
medieval studies from
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...
, and both an M.A. and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in English from the
University of Rochester.
He has been a professor at
The Citadel
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one of six senior military colleges in the United States. ...
in Charleston, South Carolina since 2006.
In his academic life he wrote numerous articles on the world of
J.R.R. Tolkien, ''
Beowulf'',
Chaucer,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
and
Robert Jordan
James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan," Robert Jordan" was the name of the protagonist in the 1940 Hemingway novel ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', though this is not how the n ...
.
Television
Michael Livingston is the co-star on the
Discovery Channel TV show ''
Contact'', in which he skeptically examines potential evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life and its impact on Earth.
Writing
Livingston has published multiple academic works.
He said in 2015, "one of the key bits of advice I ever received as a young novelist-to-be was to try to cut my teeth on writing short stories ... starting with short stories was vital to the development of my career". Livingston's
debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
, ''The Shards of Heaven'', was published by
Tor Books in November 2015.
Two sequels have subsequently appeared.
Middle English translations
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Academia
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*Livingston, Michael (2021). ''Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England''. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing.
*Livingston, Michael (2022).
Crécy: Battle of Five Kings'. Osprey Publishing.
General nonfiction
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Fiction
Short stories
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* Livingston, Michael (2016). "The Temples of the Ark" (''Shards of Heaven'').
Amazon Kindle (short story).
Livingston's 2011 collection ''Angels Among Other Things'', self-published via
e-book, consisted of nine short stories, including "The Keeper Alone" and "At the End of Babel".
Novels
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Anthologies edited
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Livingston, Michael
21st-century American novelists
American fantasy writers
American historical novelists
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina faculty
Living people
Novelists from Colorado
Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity
Year of birth missing (living people)