Name: Eric Freeze
Your background: I’m originally from southern Alberta and I group up in a small farming town that was about 70% Mormon, the town that serves as the fictional backdrop for my first collection of short stories, Dominant Traits. I attended Brigham Young University for my BA and MA in African American Literature. Afterwards, I pursued a PhD in Fiction Writing at Ohio University where I graduated in 2004. I’m married to another academic: Rixa Ann Spencer Freeze, and I have three young children: Zari (6), Dio (4) and Inga (2). We live in Crawfordsville in the old Poston Brick home on Wallace Ave, right across the street from the Lew Wallace study.
Department and specialty at Wabash: I teach American literature and creative writing. My main specialty is contemporary fiction, although I have been writing more creative nonfiction. Next year, the University of Nebraska Press will publish my second book, a collection of essays titled Hemingway on a Bike.
Favorite part of Wabash: I like the ways that my professional and personal lives intersect. I enjoy being able to play ultimate Frisbee and indoor soccer with students, faculty, and staff.
Favorite place on the campus: Probably the mall in the summer. It seems to me the aesthetic heart of the place. I also love the paw-paw grove in the Arboretum when the paw-paws are ripe.
Favorite food: I have so many, everything from heirloom summer tomatoes to fine claires oysters off the coast of western France. Anything that is ripe and flavorful and prepared with care. I do have a thing for artisanal cheese.
Something most people don’t know about you: I used to work in summer stock theatre doing improv and writing comedy.