Note from Eloisa:
I grew up on a steady diet of fairy tales, since my father, Robert Bly, was fascinated by them. Years later, when I was in graduate school, he wrote a long analysis of one such story, called Iron John. When I was a child, he was just breaking into fairy tale analysis, as it were. I have a distinct memory of being challenged to give a psychological explanation of the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. I haven’t the faintest idea what I said; what I do remember is my father saying with real surprise in his voice: “That was brilliant. You’re a natural!” My father is a poet and a deeply loving father—but at times he was so caught in a web of words that he didn’t notice the children milling about him. I rejoiced in having caught his attention, and I don’t suppose it will surprise anyone to find that I’m now a professor of English literature, with a penchant for rewriting fairy stories. While I am not interested in the kind of cultural analysis my father did in Iron John, I inherited his fascination with the complexity of literary texts.

Eloisa writes a feature column every month for Barnes & Noble’s Review website, an online publication that aims to bring serious readers smart and useful appraisals of current books. She has written about the socio-economic status of vampires and the Ovidian strains in contemporary romance. She’s been called the Lionel Trilling of romance critics – and her column is so popular that B&N commissioned a portrait just for her. Read Eloisa's Archived Columns.

Eloisa's father is Robert Bly, winner of the American Book Award for poetry. She's described herself as feeling as if she were Gilbert and Sullivan -- born into the family of Bach! One of Eloisa's recent books is the tale of a young woman growing up with an eccentric, dramatic poet for a father! Desperate Duchesses is dedicated to Robert Bly. The public was fascinated – Desperate Duchesses hit #5 on the Publishers' Weekly Mass Market Bestseller List – as well as 15 on the New York Times!

Several of Eloisa's books (Enchanting Pleasures, Pleasure for Pleasure, and Much Ado About You) feature plump, curvy heroines. Eloisa's work often breaks all the so-called "rules" for romance--what other romance writer has featured a hero who annulled his first marriage on the grounds of impotence?

Eloisa James is a professor of English literature, specializing in Shakespeare. She teaches at Fordham University in New York City. Oxford University Press published her academic book in 2000.

Eloisa lives in New Jersey during the school year, and in Florence, Italy, during the summers. Her husband is a cavaliere, an Italian knight.

Twenty of Eloisa's books are bestsellers, reaching as high as #5 on the New York Times Bestseller List. See the whole list.

Eloisa's books have been published in China, England, France, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Russia and Thailand. She's a hard-cover bestseller in Holland and Spain.

Eloisa has approximately 3.5 million books in print in thirteen languages.

Eloisa James is the daughter of poet Robert Bly (winner of the American Book Award for Poetry) and short story author Carol Bly. Her father is a big fan.

Eloisa James's godfather was the poet James Wright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems. Among those poems – and one of Wright's most beloved – is a poem written for his goddaughter, Mary Bly (aka Eloisa James).

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Eloisa appreciates all the requests for photographs for press use. All images are jpgs; pixel dimensions denote height. Please let us know where you post your article so we can link to it. Thanks.

300 dpi,1366px Print 72 dpi, 400px Web	300 dpi,1366px Print 72 dpi, 400px Web

Photographs courtesy of Bryan Derballa

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For further information, please contact:

Pamela Spengler-Jaffee
Publicity, Harper Collins Publications
212.207.7495