Associate Professor of Creative Writing
I currently teach on: Writing Genres, Scriptwriting and Writing the Uncanny. I also supervise BA, MA and MFA dissertations and supervise PhD students.
I am also involved with: Introduction to Creative Writing, Writing to Order
tell us about yourself!
Where did you study? The University of Hull: Literature, Film and Humanities
What is the primary genre you write in? Impossible to narrow it down to one. In addition to academic writing I tend to work on folk horror, uncanny fiction, science-fiction and creative non-fiction
Which writers have influenced you the most? Impossible to narrow this down. I’m consistently inspired by my colleagues and students on the creative writing degrees.
What is so appealing about working at YSJ? Also tricky to narrow down. Again, its my colleagues and the students on the creative writing degrees.
Any advice for Creative Writing students? Read as widely as you can and as much as you can.
What have you had published?
BOOK SERIES
- Series Editor: Spectres, Hauntings and Horrors, Bloomsbury Academic Series, with Professor Dawn
Keetley and Dr Adam J. Smith
BOOKS
- Pleasance, H & Edgar, R (2026) Haunted Writing: Storytelling from the Borders of Fiction and Non-Fiction, Bloomsbury: London
- Edgar, R & Smith, A J, (2026) Eighteenth Century Folk Horror, Bloomsbury: London
- Edgar, R, Johnson, W & Marland, J, (2026) Alan Garner: The Work of Time, Manchester University Press, Manchester
- Mann, F, Edgar, R, & Pleasance, H, (2026) Turntable Stories, Equinox: Sheffield
- Stephenson, L, Edgar, R, & Marland, J (eds.) (2024) Horrifying Children: Hauntology and the Legacy of Children’s Television Bloomsbury: New York
- Edgar, R & Johnson, W, (eds.) (2023) The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror, Routledge: London (Rue Morgue Best Non-Fiction Book 2023)
- Mann, F, Edgar, R, & Pleasance, H, (eds.) (2023) Venue Stories, Equinox Books: Sheffield
- Smith, A G, Edgar, R, & Marland, J (2023) Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition, Bloomsbury: New York (Nominated for the Katherine Briggs Award, Folklore Society, 2023)
- Edgar, R & Marland, J (2019) Adaptation for Screenwriters, Bloomsbury: New York (Shortlisted for best monograph, Screenwriters Research Network Awards, 2021)
- Edgar, R, Mann, F, Pleasance, H. (eds.) (2019) Music, Memory and Memoir, Bloomsbury: New York
- Edgar, R, Fairclough, K, Halligan, B, Spelman, N. (eds.) (2015) The Arena Concert, Bloomsbury: New York
- Edgar, R, Marland, J, Rawle, S (2015) The Language of Film 2nd edition (2015), Bloomsbury: London, September
- Edgar, R, Fairclough, K, Halligan, B, (eds.) (2013) Music Documentary: From Acid Rock to Electro-Pop, Routledge: New York,
- Edgar, R, Marland, J, Rawle, S, (2010) The Language of Film (2010), Fairchild Press: London
- Edgar, R (2009) Directing Fiction, (2009) AVA Publishing: Switzerland
- Edgar, R & Marland, J, (2009) Screenwriting, AVA Publishing: Switzerland
FICTION
- Edgar, R, (2025) (Middle-Grace Novel) The Wandspringer, Foolscap and Quill: Colorado
- ‘Lonely This Christmas’ (2020) (Short Story), Prowse, J. & Cleworth (2020) Christmas Horror Stories from Horrified: Volume One
- ‘The Driver’ and ‘Slippery Customers’, (2017) (Short Fiction) Science Fiction for Survival: An Archive for Mars, Valley Press: Scarborough
- ‘Beast’, (2017) (Short Fiction) contributed to The Pollination Project (Abi Curtis), York St John University (2017)
- ‘Once I’ (2011) Quick Fictions App
FICTION ANTHOLOGIES
- King, L. & Edgar, R. (eds.) (2019) Science Fiction for Survival: An Archive for Mars, Valley Press: Scarborough
- Edgar, R & Peniston, I. (eds.) (2020) Horrifying Tales, Greenteeth Press: Oxford
BOOK CHAPTERS
- Narrative Aporias and Lost Futures, in Pleasance, H. and Edgar, R. (2026) Haunted Writing, Bloomsbury: London
- ‘Beneath the Soil: Hardy, Hurley and Starve Acre’, (with Alan G Smith), in Edney, S. (2026) Georgic Gothic: EcoGothic, Antipastoral and Global Horror, Manchester University Press: Manchester
- ‘Strandloper, Treacle Walker: Garner and Unified Field Theory’, in Edgar, R., Johnson, W. and Marland, J. (under contract, 2026) Alan Garner and the Work of Time, Manchester University Press: Manchester
- Misplaced Childhood, in Mann, F, Edgar, R and Pleasance, H. (in press) Turntable Stories, Equinox: Sheffield
- Keeping Doctoral Research on Track, in Polkinghorne, M, Taylor, J, and Knight, F, (in press, 2026) Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Supervision: Selected Case Studies, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham
- ‘If a bunch of ‘em tell you, it must be true.’: Lonely Boy, The Sex Pistols and Adaption in Dines, M., Graves-Brown, P., Gabriela, C.G. & Schofield, J. (in press 2026) The Routledge Companion to the Sex Pistols, Routledge: London
- ‘Mohawk this Guy’: New York Wyrd in Keetley, D, (in press, 2026) American Folk Horror, University of Wales Press: Cardiff
- Graphically Speaking: CUD, Graphic Memoir and Artistic Authority in Attah, T., Fairclough, K., and Lloyd, C. (2025) Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences: Popular Music Autobiographies, Bloomsbury: London
- Hinterlands: Neo-Liberal Desolation in Edgar, R & Johnson, W, (eds.) (2024) The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror, Routledge: London
- Chatting with Jarvis in Edgar, R, Mann, F, & Pleasance, H, (eds.) (2023) Venue Stories, Equinox Books: Sheffield
- Hiatus: Music, Memory and Liminal Authenticity in Edgar, R, Mann, F, Pleasance, H. (2019) Music, Memory and Memoir, Bloomsbury: New York
- The Aesthetics of the Arena: Live and Recorded in Monteiro, S. (2017) The Screen Media Reader: Culture, Theory and Practice, Bloomsbury, New York, 421-434
- The Aesthetics of the Arena: Live and Recorded in Edgar, R. Fairclough, K. Halligan, B. Spelman, N. (2016) The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment, Bloomsbury, New York, 195-206
- Rocking around Watford: Trying to Find What I Was Looking For. (with Julia and Evan Shelton) (2016) in Edgar, R. Fairclough, K. Halligan, B. Spelman, N. (2016) The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment, Bloomsbury, New York, 181- 192
- Mel Brooks and Sidney Lumet in Allon, Y. & Patterson, H. (2001) The Wallflower Critical Guide to Contemporary North American Directors (1st edition), Columbia University Press: New York
JOURNALS
- Edgar, Robert (2022) ‘British folk horror, hauntology and the terrifying nature of the ordinary’. The Conversation, 28th October 2022
- Edgar, Robert, Mann, Fraser and Pleasance, Helen (2019) ‘Music, Memory and Memoir: Critical and creative engagement with an emerging genre’. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 12 (1-2). pp. 181-199
- ‘If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.’ Oren Stern, Bill Shankly and Funeral at Parc de France. P.O.V. Number 15 March 2003
- ‘The Nature of Survival in the 21st Century: The Survival of Concern in 1995’. (John Brunner’s The Long Result (1965) and Stand on Zanzibar (1968)). Vector (The Critical Journal of the BSFA), No. 185, September/October 1995.
You can find more about Dr Robert Edgar and other members of York St John’s staff on the university’s website.
Or, you can stay here and check out more of our Creative Writing Staff Profiles.