Interview with Dr. E. Alan Nordstrom Jr., Rollins College Professor of English

Alan E. Nordstrom, Jr. joined the faculty of Rollins College in 1970 as an assistant professor of English. During his time here, Nordstrom has distinguished himself as a notable scholar and helped redefine the goals of a liberal arts education. Nordstrom was born on July 17, 1939, in Buffalo, New York. He attended Yale and went on to teach at the Vermont Academy after the completion of his undergraduate studies in English. In 1966, Nordstrom earned his Masters in English at the University of Michigan, where he also served as a teaching fellow for two years. Nordstrom relocated to New York, where he served as assistant professor at Niagara County Community College. When he joined the Rollins College faculty as assistant professor, he was also working towards his Ph. D in English. Over the past forty years, Nordstrom has enriched the minds of students in Shakespeare, English Renaissance Literature, personal and creative writing, and human frontier studies. He has also maintained an active role outside the classroom, holding memberships in the Shakespeare Association of America, College English Association, National Council for Teachers of English, and the English Modern Language Association. He has also been involved in the founding of the Fine Arts House, Rollins’ Brushing magazine, and the Rollins Teaching-Learning Center. For his involvement with such endeavors, Rollins awarded him the Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship. Additionally, he was honored with the third annual McKean Grant, which allowed him to study Shakespearean stage production with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-on-Avon, England. His publications include Ped∙Antics, a Book of Poetry (1980); The Good Life, According to Me (2000); Living the Questions, Verse Meditations (2001); and Soul Search Sonnets (2002)