Thomas Karshan

Thomas Karshan is Associate Professor in Literature at the University of East Anglia, within the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing. He is a member of the East Centre (UEA Centre for the Study of East Central Europe and the Former Soviet Space) and the Modern and Contemporary Writing Research Group. His academic work bridges literary scholarship, creative writing, and pedagogy.

His research focuses on modernism, post-1945 literature, and the interplay between creative and critical writing. Key interests include Vladimir Nabokov, the literary essay, parody, nonsense, and imitative teaching practices rooted in Renaissance humanist education. He has led the development of creative-critical pedagogy and supervises PhD projects exploring the creative-critical nexus.

His recent publications span monographs, edited volumes, and chapters on Nabokov, the essay form, and modernist literature. His work shows a consistent engagement with themes of undelivered messages, literary form, and the boundaries between genres. He is currently writing a second monograph, Undelivered Letters: Modern Literature and the Message, and an essayistic book for a general audience titled City of Words.

• University Teaching Fellowship (2020–2022)

He has been awarded a University Teaching Fellowship for his innovative work in developing playful and imitative teaching methods. He founded and co-edits creativecritical.net, a platform for creative-critical scholarship. He also runs the MA in Modern and Contemporary Writing at UEA and has been President of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society (2018–2019).

His editorial and translation work includes Nabokov’s Collected Poems and The Tragedy of Mister Morn. He co-edited On Essays: Montaigne to the Present and has contributed to major reference works such as the Edinburgh Companion to the Essay and the Cambridge History of the Essay.