Academy Gothic
2015
First Published
3.78
Average Rating
247
Number of Pages
Tate Cowlishaw is late for another faculty meeting when he discovers the body of Scoot Simkins, dean of Parshall College. Cowlishaw might be legally blind but sees that a man with three bullets in his head didn’t put them there himself. The police disagree. When Cowlishaw investigates, he is told his teaching contract won’t be renewed. Suspects aren’t hard to come by at the college annually ranked “Worst Value” by U.S. News & World Report. While the faculty brace for a visit from the accreditation board, Cowlishaw’s investigation leads him to another colleague on eternal sabbatical. Before long, his efforts to save his job become efforts to stay alive. A farcical tale of incompetence and corruption, Academy Gothic scathingly redefines higher education as it chronicles the last days of a dying college.
Avg Rating
3.78
Number of Ratings
80
5 STARS
40%
4 STARS
24%
3 STARS
15%
2 STARS
16%
1 STARS
5%
goodreads
Author
James Tate Hill
Author · 3 books
James Tate Hill is the author of a memoir, Blind Man's Bluff, coming in 2021 from W. W. Norton. His fiction debut, Academy Gothic, won the Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel. His essays have been listed as notable in the 2019 and 2020 editions of Best American Essays, and his writing has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Writer's Digest, Story Quarterly, and Hobart, among others. He serves as fiction editor for the literary journal Monkeybicycle and contributing editor for Literary Hub, where he writes a monthly audiobooks column.
