Ben Nadler

Ben Nadler, PhD, MFA

  • Assistant Teaching Professor of English
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Affiliated Programs

Education

  • PhD, English (2022)
    University at Albany, State University of New York (NY)
  • MFA, Creative Writing (2013)
    The City College of the City University of New York (NY)
  • BA, Liberal Arts (2006)
    Eugene Lang College, The New School (NY)

About Me

I received my PhD in English from SUNY Albany. My doctoral work forms the basis of my current book project, a multi-vocal novel exploring the traumatic afterlives of a union war fought in downstate Illinois in the 1930s.

My previous books include The Sea Beach Line, a novel rooted in the traditions of both crime fiction and Jewish storytelling, and Punk in NYC’s Lower East Side 1981-1991, a nonfiction subcultural monograph drawing on oral history and archival research.

I consider writing to be a powerful tool for exploring, and making sense of, the world we live in. As a teacher, I am committed to supporting students as they develop their own writing practices.

Research Interests

  • Prose Craft
  • Fiction Writing
  • Narratology 
  • U.S. Literature
  • Genre Fiction 
  • Radical Print Culture

Publications

Nadler, B. (2023). “Scraps of History: Vernacular Archiving and Creative Composition." Methods of Knowing: Historical Research, Creative Writing, and the Past. Eds. Kevin A. Morrison and Pälvi Rantala. Routledge, 112-129.

Nadler, B. (2019). “‘We Ain’t a Christian Outfit’: Protestantism and Secularism in the Formation of the Popular Western Novel.” Western American Literature, Vol. 53, No. 4, 405-438.

Nadler, B. (2015). The Sea Beach Line: A Novel. Fig Tree Books.

Nadler, B. (2014). Punk Rock in NYC’s Lower East Side: 1981-1991. Microcosm Publishing.

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