Jay Ruud

Jay Ruud’s second Robin Hood novel, "Ghoul of Sherwood," was released in December 2022, and has been named a finalist in the Eric Hofer awards (https://www.theusreview.com/reviews-1/Ghoul-of-Sherwood-by-Jay-Ruud.html). It can currently be ordered here on Amazon or directly from the publisher at https://encirclepub.com/encircle-author/jay-ruud/. "Sleuth of Sherwood," first of the Robin Hood series, is still available on Amazon or from the publisher, as are all six of the books in the Merlin Mysteries series. He has also authored four previous books of literary criticism and scholarship (one on Chaucer, one on Dante, one on Tolkien, and an encyclopedia of medieval literature), in addition to a few dozen articles on topics like Arthurian literature, Tolkien, Chaucer, the mystic Julian of Norwich, and medieval drama.

Drama is one of Jay’s special interests, and as an avid amateur Thespian he has played various parts over the years in regional and community theater productions of Shakespeare (recently, e.g., Brabantio in "Othello"), musicals (most recently Horace Vandergelder in "Hello, Dolly!"), and more modern “straight’ plays. He recently played Lady Bracknell in a production of "The Importance of Being Earnest," where he had the interesting experience of playing his own daughter’s mother. Fortunately she is past the age when this could mess her up for life.

He does have two spectacular children, an awesome wife, four loving dogs, and four astounding grandchildren, including a pair of twin boys.

In real life, he is the retired former Professor and Chair of the English department at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, where he taught for fourteen 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, is a long-suffering but recently redeemed Chicago Cubs fan, and believes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.