Brad Baumgartner

Brad Baumgartner is an Associate Teaching Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on comparative literature, criticism, and theory, with a particular emphasis on the intersections of philosophy, horror, and mysticism. He has published extensively on authors such as Georges Bataille, E. M. Cioran, and Thomas Ligotti, as well as medieval and modern mystics. His creative work explores experimental writing, speculative aesthetics, and theory fiction. Baumgartner serves on the Editorial Board of Cyclops Journal and is Fiction Editor of Coffin Bell: A Journal of Dark Literature.

His current interdisciplinary book project, Speculative Peristalsis, examines the human digestive system through a visceropoetics lens, engaging works by Kafka, Clarice Lispector, and Bataille. He is also developing Rat Icon: Disjecta Membra, a fragmented theoretical work, and an experimental narrative Encoffined in a Fibre Bundle.

Baumgartner’s awards include a semi-finalist placement for Celeste: Our Lady of Flowering Marvel and a finalist nomination for Stylinaut in the Tarpaulin Sky Book Award. His academic and creative work has appeared in Glossator, CounterText, and edited collections like Acéphale and Autobiographical Philosophy.