Mockingbird Faculty Technical Adviser

BA (English major, Philosophy minor), 1981; MA, 1985; and PhD, 1990, The University of Alabama
BA (Women's Studies major, Appalachian Studies minor), 2018, East Tennessee State University
Graduate Certificate, Appalachian Studies, 2024, East Tennessee State University

Areas of Specialization: Appalachian Literature, Southern Literature, African American Literature

You can view Professor Holmes' website here.

A first-generation university student, Thomas Alan Holmes joined ETSU's English faculty in 1996. Here, he has taught courses in American literature, many focusing on his interests in Appalachian, Southern, and African American literature. His scholarly and creative writing has appeared in such journals as The South Atlantic Review, Appalachian Heritage, The Valparaiso Review, The Connecticut Review, Louisiana Literature, and The Appalachian Journal. With Roxanne Harde, he has co-edited Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture (Lexington Books); with Jesse Graves and Ernest Lee, he has co-edited Jeff Daniel Marion: Poet on the Holston (University of Tennessee Press); and, with Daniel Westover, he has co-edited The Fire that Breaks: Gerard Manley Hopkins’s Poetic Legacies (Clemson University Press). He has received the College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Research Award for 2014-2015 and the 2020 ETSU Graduate Council's Graduate Mentor Award. Iris Press published his debut poetry collection, In the Backhoe's Shadow, in 2022.