Dan Burns, an instructor in English, has guest-edited the most recent issue of American Book Review, a journal specializing in recently published works of fiction, poetry, and literary and cultural criticism from small, regional, university, ethnic, avant-garde, and women's presses.
ABR’s special focus issue on “Big Novels” addresses the resurgence of long-form fiction in mainstream American publishing. Burns’s critical introduction explores the extent to which older genre theories such as “encyclopedic narrative,” the “Mega-Novel,” “modern epic,” and the “systems novel” remain relevant with the rise of digital literacies and comparative textual media. Examining the current revival of interest in large-scale works through a survey of newly released titles from major American authors including Joshua Cohen, Mark Z. Danielewski, Garth Risk Hallberg and Hanya Yanagihara, the issue also considers how “maximalist” approaches to fiction require a certain dedication from reading audiences at a time many critics complain that people no longer have time for long, dense and often difficult books.
Burns teaches writing, literary interpretation, and special topics in literature courses at Elon, and recently completed his Ph.D. in American literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.