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Roy E. Schreiber
Fiction, Satire
History professor pokes fun at academia in satirical audio play
After college (UCLA and the University of London), Roy Schreiber spent a good deal of time teaching British History at a branch campus of Indiana University. Like all the other professors, he wrote academic books.
His were about people who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Only (roughly) fifty other academics in the whole world would even recognize their names. It seemed like a lot of effort for a small audience, so he switched to more popular topics. A short list includes the British navy, Tahiti, Australia and the U.S. Red Scare of the 1950s.
Then, of course, there are the satires on academic life. Now he publishes books in both audio and print, short stories, and also writes and produces plays for the stage and for radio and podcasting. Currently, he would like to find producers for a couple of movies and a mystery series.
Learn more about Schreiber on his website and in our interview with the author. Also check out our review of his latest work, The Optimist.
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BOOKS:
The Optimist (2019)
Hollywood: Red, White & Blue (2011)
Captain Bligh’s Second Chance (2007)
The Fortunate Adversities of William Bligh (1991)
Biggest literary influences:
Voltaire, P.G. Woodhouse, Hemmingway, Tom Stoppard, Sarah Ruhl, Neil Simon
Last book read:
Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War by Duncan White
The book that changed your life:
The Once and Future King by T.H. White. White demonstrated to me how it was possible to shift the tone of a book from a comic fairytale to a tragedy and still keep the reader’s interest. Before him, I had never encountered a writer who could do that effectively. It filled me with optimism about possibilities.
Your favorite literary character:
Voltaire’s Zadig. He is a rational man in an irrational world and yet he finds ways to cope and succeed. It’s the same reason I enjoy so many movies and television shows with James Garner. His characters are often Zadig in modern dress.
Currently working on:
A play called Dreamers. It’s about three men — Samuel Pepys, William Bligh and Paul Gauguin — who lived in three different centuries and whose dreams did not come true. The irony is they posthumously achieved fame for reasons about which they never dreamt.
