Most college professors write books and articles for an audience of intelligentsia, keeping their prose precise and the ideas strictly academic. Prof. John Plotz (ENG), a scholar of Victorian literature, has quietly bucked the trend with his forthcoming children's novel. Time and the Tapestry: A William Morris Adventure, Plotz's first work of fiction, will be published in May.

"Fundamentally, the book is set up as a time-travel narrative where kids from the present fall back into the past," Plotz explained in an interview with the Justice. His novel centers around the journey of siblings Jen and Ed who must find the missing pieces to their grandmother's old tapestry so she can sell it and save her house. Jen and Ed fall back into the tapestry and find themselves back in 19th-century England, where they meet William Morris, the famous English textile designer and Jen's personal hero, and formulate a plan to complete the tapestry.

Plotz explains that his motivation to write a children's novel comes from the fact that he has young children himself. "It comes out of sitting around with my kids and telling stories and reading books with them and rediscovering all those books from my childhood that I loved," he says. The Wizard of Earthsea, the Madeleine L'Engle books, The Hobbit, just remembering what incredible joy you can get if you lose yourself in one of those stories."

The focus on William Morris, however, comes from Plotz's academic background. "I've worked on William Morris in the academic context for a really long time and I am always excited to talk about the things I love about him and his socialism and his ... amazing forms of art, and I noticed there had never been a children's book written about it," Plotz explained.

William Morris is a significant figure because of his socialist ideology, his textile designs and his publications as a science-fiction writer.

"I got interested in him, I think, because the ways that he thinks about what he hates about the capitalism of his day seem very relevant to the critiques of multi-nationalism capitalism today," Plotz said.

In addition to being a textile designer, William Morris was also a writer and wrote News from Nowhere, which Plotz described as a "wonderful science fiction" book that considers the idea of "an England after capitalism had disappeared." 

Plotz has kept the process of writing his new book very quiet, describing it as "a labor of love off in its own world." However, he did seek advice from Prof. Stephen McCauley (ENG), associate director of the Creative Writing program, on how to shift gears from an academic prose and write more creatively. "Steve McCauley said probably the most important thing to me. We were talking about the book early on and he said 'yeah, it's clear you know a lot. You probably want to forget some of it too,'" referring to Plotz's background on Victorian culture. "Talking to people like Steve McCauley at Brandeis really helped in terms of thinking about what is different about that kind of writing. But dialogue was for sure the hardest part," he commented.

Having just spent about a year and a half writing and editing his first novel, Plotz is already starting a second, this one directed toward young adults. Although it is too early to give many details, he explained that the second novel would focus on author Mark Twain. "I can say that it's going to be about the old Mark Twain looking back at the stories of his childhood ... in a way, it's going to be set in two times," said Plotz.

Despite enjoying the process of writing fiction, Plotz doesn't plan on giving up his academic studies. He explained, "I really enjoy my scholarly work and I can't see giving it up, for sure. I enjoyed this a lot, whether that means I can keep doing it, I don't know. My kids gave me the thumbs-up," Plotz has authored two academic monographs and is currently at work on a third tentatively titled Semi-Detached: The Aesthetic of Partial Absorption, the research for which has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Other professors have published literature or poetry alongside their academic work. Profs. John Burt (ENG), a scholar of American literature, and Mary Baine Campbell (ENG), an expert in literature of Early Modern Europe, have each published books of original poetry. In the history department, Prof. Jane Kamensky (HIST), an expert on early American history, co-authored Blindspot, a 2008 romance novel that takes place in the era of the American Revolution.

Time and the Tapestry: A William Morris Adventure is illustrated by Phyllis Saroff and is scheduled to be published in May by Bunker Hill Publishing.
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