Michael Robert Collings (born October 29, 1947) is an American author, poet, literary criticism, literary critic, and bibliography, bibliographer, and a former professor of creative writing and literature at Pepperdine University. He was Poet in Residence at Pepperdine's Seaver College from 1997 to 2000. Collings has had multiple collections of his poetry published on subjects such as List of topics about the Latter Day Saint movement#Latter Day Saint doctrines, beliefs, and practices, Latter Day Saint theology, Joseph Smith, Christmas, science fiction, and horror (genre), horror. He is known for his literary critiques and bibliographies of the works of Orson Scott Card and Stephen King, though he has also published critiques and bibliographies of the works of Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, C. S. Lewis, Brian W. Aldiss, and Piers Anthony. His ''In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott Card'' was the first book-length academic look at Card's works.

Biography

Michael Robert Collings was born in Rupert, Idaho. He graduated from Bakersfield College in 1967 with an Associate's degree, then graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English from Whittier College two years later. After graduating with a Master of Arts, Master's degree in English studies, English from the University of California, Riverside in 1973, Collings received his Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D. in English literature from UCR in 1977, specializing in John Milton, Milton and The Renaissance. Before he began teaching creative writing and literature at Pepperdine University, Collings taught at UCR, San Bernardino Valley Community College, and UCLA. He taught at Pepperdine from 1979 until 2010, when he retired. He now lives in Idaho with his wife, Judi. His son, Michaelbrent Collings, is a fantasy and horror writer. Collings was introduced to Stephen King's work by a student, David A. Engebretson, in 1983, and published his first book on him, ''The Many Facets of Stephen King'', in 1985; reading King led to his also studying and publishing on Koontz and Robert R. McCammon, Robert McCammon. The World Horror Convention awarded him their World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, Grand Master Award in 2016.

Selected bibliography

Articles and papers

*"C. S. Lewis and the Music of Creation" (July–August 1979), ''Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society'' *"The Mechanisms of Fantasy" (January 1980), ''Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society'' *"''To Be Still a Man'': Abstraction and Concretion in C. S. Lewis" (January 1982), ''Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society'' *"Beyond Deep Heaven: Generic Structure and Christian Message in C. S. Lewis’s Ransom Novels", (December 1986), ''Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society'' *"''Brothers of the Head'': Brian W. Aldiss’s Psychological Landscape" (1988), ''Spectrum of the Fantastic: Selected Papers from the Fifth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts'', Greenwood Press *"Brian W. Aldiss" (1989), ''Reader’s Guide to Twentieth Century Science Fiction Writers'', American Library Association *"''To See the World the Poet's Way''" In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization, and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott Card. New York: Greenwood Press, (1990), ''Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed.Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 279. Detroit: Gale, 2010'' Sources:

Non-fiction books

*''The Many Facets of Stephen King'' (1985), Starmont House, *''The Shorter Works of Stephen King'' (1985), with David A. Engebretson, Starmont House, *''Stephen King as Richard Bachman'' (1985), Starmont House, *''The Annotated Guide to Stephen King: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of America’s Premier Horror Writer'' (1986), Starmont House, *''The Films of Stephen King'' (1986), Starmont House, *''Card Catalogue: The Science Fiction and Fantasy of Orson Scott Card'' (1987), Hypatia Press, *''The Stephen King Phenomenon'' (1987), Starmont House, *''In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott Card'' (1990), Greenwood Press, *''Scaring Us to Death: The Impact of Stephen King on Popular Culture'' (1997), Borgo Press, *''The Work of Orson Scott Card: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide'' (1997), with Boden Clarke *''Hauntings: The Official Peter Straub Bibliography'' (2000), Overlook Connection Press, *''Storyteller: The Official Guide to the Works of Orson Scott Card'' (2001), Overlook Connection Press, *''Horror Plum'd: An International Stephen King Bibliography and Guide 1960-2000'' (2003), Overlook Connection Press, *''Stephen King Is Richard Bachman'', (March 2008), Overlook Connection Press, Sources:

Novels

*''The House Beyond the Hill'' (2007, Wildside Press, ) *''Singer of Lies'' (2009, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''The Slab'' (2011, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''Static!'' (2011, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''Shadow Valley'' (2011, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''Writing Darkness'' (2012, CreateSpace, ) Wordsmith series #''The Veil of Heaven'' (2009, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) #''The Thousand Eyes of Flame'' (2009, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) #''Three Tales of Omne'' (2010, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, , published in an omnibus with ''The Elder of Days'' by Robert Reginald)

Epic poem

*''The Nephiad: An Epic Poem in XII Books'' (1996, Zarahemla Motets, )

Poetry and fiction collections

*''Naked to the Sun'' (1986, Starmont House, ) *''Dark Transformations: Deadly Visions of Change'' (1990, Starmont House, ) *''All Calm, All Bright: Christmas Offerings'' (2007, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''In the Void: Poems of Science Fiction, Myth and Fantasy, & Horror'' (2009, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''Wer Means Man and Other Tales of Wonder and Terror'' (2010, Borgo Press/Wildside Press, ) *''Dear Emily: And Other Poems'' (2016, CreateSpace, ) Sources:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, Michael R. 1947 births Pepperdine University faculty Latter Day Saints from California American male poets American poets American speculative fiction critics Latter Day Saint poets Literature educators Living people Science fiction critics People from Rupert, Idaho Latter Day Saints from Idaho American male non-fiction writers