Dr. Michael D. Koontz is a scholar of modernist literature and an experienced teacher of first-year writing and advanced composition. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Nevada, Reno and has spent two decades in higher education. His research focuses on the fiction of modernist writers —e.g. James Joyces, D. H. Lawrence, Franz Kafka, Wyndam Lewis, Thomas Mann, Katherine Mansfield, and Virgnia Woolf (among others)—and the ethical and aesthetic questions that emerge from early twentieth-century literary experimentation. He is currently completing an article on Aaron’s Rod and exploring new work on ethical responsibility and the novel.

Across his career he has taught a wide range of courses, from first-year writing to upper-division seminars in modernism, literary and critical theory, and the modern world. His teaching is grounded in textual analysis, critical inquiry, and research-driven writing. He has also mentored developing writers at all levels, with particular attention to evidence-based analysis, rhetorical clarity, and style. He currently holds teaching appointments at California State University, Fresno and American River College.

His next project involves a book-length study of the ethics of walking in the modernist novel. He lives in midtown Sacramento, California and continues to balance his research, teaching, and writing with an active engagement in public-facing humanities.