Nerd, Nostalgic, Capricorn
Joe Ortiz is department chair and Dorrance R. Roderick Professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he teaches Renaissance and comparative literature. He is the author of “Broken Harmony: Shakespeare and the Politics of Music” (Cornell University Press), as well as other books and articles on Renaissance literature and music. He has also written opera reviews for Theatre Journal, OperaWire and The Gay & Lesbian Review. His recent book, “Gordon Merrick and the Great Gay American Novel” (Lexington Books) is the first biography of Gordon Merrick ’39, one of the most successful gay novelists of the 20th century. Ortiz is currently working on a number of projects about Renaissance literature and gay literary history, including a study of translation in Renaissance epic, a book on Shakespeare and musical identity, and a collection of writings by and about the writer John Rechy.