Jay RuudJay Ruud is a retired professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas, now devoting much of his time to fiction writing. He has retold the traditional legend of King Arthur for modern readers as a series of Merlin Mysteries, the final volue of which, To the Great Deep, was published in the fall of 2020. He's also written scholarly books, including an Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature (2006), A Critical Companion to Dante (2008), and A Critical Companion to Tolkien (2011), as well as the first full-length study of Chaucer's short poems, "Many a Song and Many a Leccherous Lay" Tradition and Individuality in Chaucer Lyric Poetry (1992), a book that was reissued by Routledge in October 2019 after 27 years. He taught at UCA and chaired the English department for 13 years, prior to which he was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He has a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is married to the thoroughly awesome poet and novelist Stacey Margaret Jones. He has two more or less adult children, and as many spectacular dogs as grandchildren (four). He has been to all seven continents, is a lifetime Chicago Cubs fan, and dabbles in community theater, where he once played his own daughter's mother. Read More Read Less