ECU English professor retires after 42 years of teaching

Roger C. Schlobin

East Carolina University English professor Roger C. Schlobin has retired after a combined 42 years of teaching at ECU, The Ohio State University and Purdue University.
Schlobin is one of three founders of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, now in its 33rd year. He is past editor and founder of “The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts,” and “The Year’s Scholarship of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror.”
He was editor of “The Aesthetics of Fantasy Literature and Art,” as well as more than 50 volumes in the Starmont Reader’s Guides to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, the first scholarly series to focus on individual authors. Schlobin’s bibliography, “The Literature of Fantasy,” is recognized as the definitive annotated bibliography in the field.
Schlobin has authored more than 100 essays, poems, short stories, reviews and bibliographies and composed the first original fantasy novel published online, “Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer Dragon.”
He donated his personal library to ECU and endowed the James H. and Virginia C. Schlobin Collection of Literature of the Fantastic, the third largest of its kind in the world.
Schlobin holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State University, a master’s degree from The University of Wisconsin and a bachelor’s from C.W. Post College.
Schlobin’s interests beyond writing and teaching include tinkering with “Princess,” a souped-up 1997 Datsun 280Z, and membership in the Emerald City Z Club, where he was founder and past president. He enjoys great food and drink, photography, computer games, collecting dragons and t-shirts, and still mourns the passing of his silver-mackerel tabby, the great Joshua Thunderpussy.