Man with dark hair and glasses, wearing dark suit coat and white shirt with red tie in front of black background

Mark Lucas

Alfred P. and Katherine B. Jobson Professor of English, Emeritus

Education

BA Centre College
PhD from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

BIOGRAPHY

Mark Lucas teaches the literature and music of the American South. His scholarly interests include William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and the connections between music, fiction, and film in contemporary Southern Gothic. “Grit Lit,” “Faulkner,” and “The South in Song, Story, and Film” are signature courses of his classroom work, which often incorporates field trips to Savannah, Memphis, Mississippi, and New Orleans. He is currently writing a book on the songwriter legend, Jesse Winchester. Lucas is a singer/songwriter himself, having released two solo albums since his many years playing in a traveling blues band.

A 1975 graduate of Centre, Lucas earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has taught at Centre since 1981 and has also taught abroad at Regent’s College in London. He has been the CASE Kentucky Professor of the Year and an Al Smith Award-winner for creative writing.