SharedWorlds

Authors, Instructors, and Directors

Jeremy L. C. Jones, Camp Director

Personal Website: www.jeremylcjones.com
Secondary Websites: www.livingwordsprogram.com & www.koboldquarterly.com

Jeremy L. C. Jones is a freelance writer, editor, and lecturer. He contributes regularly to the third-party role-playing game magazine Kobold Quarterly (www.koboldquarterly.com). He also writes for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites.

Jones is a board member for The Hub City Writers Project and The South Carolina Academy of Authors. Along with collaborators at the Alzheimer's Association, The Hub City Writers Project, and the Department of Psychology at Wofford College, Jones helped create Living Words (www.LivingWordsProgram.com), a creative writing program for people diagnosed with dementia and their caregivers.

Jones is a shameless fan of shared world fiction in general and Forgotten Realms in particular, which lead to his creating a pilot of the shared worlds program at a high school in Lexington, KY. His favorite fantasy novelists are R. A. Salvatore, Greg Keyes, and David Gemmell. He prefers Robert E. Howard to J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, and is still not convinced that one day he won't find the magic doorway to Narnia. He's pretty fond of Greek drama, southern literature, Vietnam War novels, and American nature writing, too.

 

Jeff Vandermeer, Assistant Director

Personal web: jeffvanderrmeer.com
Amazon blog: http://www.omnivoracious.com/jeff.html
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Vandermeer

Widely regarded as one of the world's best fantasists, Jeff VanderMeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and spent six months traveling through Asia, Africa, and Europe before returning to the United States. These travels have deeply influenced his fiction. 

Jeff is the recipient of an NEA-funded Florida Individual Artist Fellowship for excellence in fiction and a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant. VanderMeer's book-length fiction has been translated into 15 languages, while his short fiction has appeared in several "year's best" anthologies and short-listed for Best American Short Stories. 

A two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, VanderMeer has also been a finalist for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. 

His most recent books have made the "year's best" lists of Publishers Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Weekly, Publishers’ News, and Amazon.com. In addition to his writing, VanderMeer has edited or co-edited several anthologies, including the critically acclaimed Leviathan fiction anthology series, Best American Fantasy, and The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. He also writes for The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, SF Weekly, The SF Site, Locus Online, and many others.

Thirty-nine years old, he lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann, and three cats.

 

Christine Dinkins, Instructor

Christine Sorrell Dinkins is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wofford College. She earned a PhD in Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and is a specialist in Ancient Greek Philosophy. Her other philosophical interests include Heidegger and Gadamer, Philosophy of Nursing, and Socratic pedagogy. She served several summers as Philosopher-in-Residence of the Institute for Interpretive Phenomenology at University of Wisconsin-Madison and George Mason University. She co-edited the book Listening to the Whispers: Re-Thinking Ethics in Healthcare and is currently working on a book with Wofford physics instructor Steven Zides, World on the Edge: Philosophical Perspectives on Contemporary Science. She prefers a highly interactive teaching style and is the recipient of multiple teaching awards and honors.

Dr. Dinkins is a lifelong reader of fantasy and science fiction literature, counting among her favorites Madeline L'Engle, Guy Gavriel Kay, and Ursula K. LeGuin. She spends part of most weekends playing video games and fantasy and superhero RPGs. Her favorite gaming world is D&D's Eberron, in which she recently finished running a 4-year campaign. Her favorite activity is joining her husband in playing with their shelter-rescue mutt, Radar. 

 

Joseph Spivey, Instructor

Joseph Alfred Spivey is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Wofford College. He earned a PhD in mathematics from Duke University. He specialized in algebraic topology, which is basically the study of "stretchy spaces." His thesis concerned the shape of a special 6-dimensional space (which is cooler than it sounds!). Other professional interests include mathematics curricular issues at the college level and teaching with technology.

Dr. Spivey loves to read fantasy novels. Among his favorite fantasy series are Song of Fire and Ice, Duane's Young Wizards series, the Sabriel trilogy, Wheel of Time, and the Shannara books. He also enjoys playing video games, primarily RPGs. When not teaching, reading, or playing video games, you'll probably find Dr. Spivey working in the yard or spending time with his wife.

 

Christopher Dinkins, Classroom Facilitator

Christopher Dinkins earned an MA in English at the University of Virginia. He has taught Composition and Literature at the University of Illinois and Wofford College. His literary interests include Elizabethan drama and American Southern fiction. In his free time, he enjoys video games, board games, and almost all types of RPGs, particularly Champions and Dungeons & Dragons. He is a voracious reader of comic books, especially those from the Golden and Silver ages, when superheroes were still moral paragons. His favorite comic writer and artist is Jack Kirby, creator of DC Comics' Fourth World, whose places and characters are still being written about today.

 

Tim Schmitz, Director of Summer Programs

Tim is Associate Professor of History at Wofford, but for twelve of the past sixteen years, he has spent his summers working for the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth (CTY) summer academic program as a history instructor and as a site director. He has worked in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York for CTY. In 2008, CTY selected him to direct the inaugural year of the CTY International site in Spain, which was held at the European University of Madrid.

Tim teaches European history at Wofford. His research interest is the intersection of state power and religious reform in sixteenth-century Spain.