Willie Steele

English

University Research Professor

Biography

Willie Steele grew up in Ohio before completing his undergraduate degree (English and Speech Communication) from Lipscomb University where he ran cross country and track. He stayed in Tennessee to coach and complete his MA in English from Middle Tennessee State University. In between teaching and coaching stints at Cascade College in Portland, Oregon, Steele completed his PhD in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He also taught at Oklahoma Christian University before returning to Lipscomb in 2015.

Steele is the editor of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture and has authored two books, "A Member of the Local Nine: Baseball and Identity in the Fiction of W.P Kinsella" and "Going the Distance: The Life and Works of W.P. Kinsella." Willie is a regular presenter at the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture and at the NINE Spring Training Conference.

He is married to Heather and has two daughters. In his free time, he works on perfecting his knuckleball with the hopes of being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Academic Degrees

BA in English and Speech Communication (Lipscomb University); MA in English (Middle Tennessee State University); PhD in Literature and Criticism (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Academic Department

English and Modern Languages

Classes

Research Interests

Research and Publications

Going the Distance: The Life and Works of W.P. Kinsella (2018)

A Member of the Local Nine: Baseball and Identity in the Fiction of W. P. Kinsella (2012)

Steele, W., Williamson, D. T., & Jones, S. "Team-Teaching the Civil War at Historical Sites." In Colleen Glenney Boggs (Ed.), "Teaching the Literatures of the American Civil War" (pp. 58-67). Modern Language Association. (2016)

Regular column in "NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture"

Relevant Professional Work

Grants and Awards

2021: Cowart Faculty Excellence Award, Lipscomb University.
2019: Faculty Summer Grant, Lipscomb University.
2016: Faculty Summer Grant, Lipscomb University.
2013: Rowe Distinguished Scholar Award, Oklahoma Christian University. 2008-2009 – 2009-2010: Faith and Learning Award, Oklahoma Christian University.
2010: Timothy Mentor, Oklahoma Christian University.
2008: Co-Faculty of the Year, Cascade College.
2001: Faculty Member of the Year, Cascade College.
2000: Faculty Member of the Year, Cascade College.

Talks and Presentations

2021- A New Normal: Major League Baseball's Reactions to 9/11. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2019 - Sugar and Spice and Some Baseball Is Nice: Women in Baseball and Juvenile Baseball Fiction. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2018 - Whattaya, Blind, Ump?: Insights from Umpire Memoirs. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2017 - Going the Distance: A Retrospective of W.P. Kinsella's Life and Baseball Fiction. Invited presentation at Annual Conference of the Sport Literature Association, West Liberty, West Virginia.

2017 - Going the Distance: A Retrospective of W.P. Kinsella's Life and Baseball Fiction. Invited presentation at Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure, and Sports Studies, Nashville, Tennessee.

2017 - We Interrupt This Marriage for Baseball Season: The Evolution of Baseball Wives' Writings. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2017 - Going the Distance: A Retrospective of W.P. Kinsella's Life and Baseball Fiction. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2016 - Baseball and the Most Honest Moments: The People, Places, and Memories of Fan Memoirs. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2016 - And Ever the Twain Shall Tweet: Teaching Mark Twain in the 21st Century. Tennessee Philological Association, Clarksville, Tennessee.

2016 - Say it Ain't So . . . Phil?: Shufflin' Phil Douglas and Baseball's Post-Black Sox Climate. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2015 - The Birth of the Family: The 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates and Major League Baseball's First All-Black Lineup. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2015 - It's OK, I've Never Heard of You Either: Minor League Memoirs, Major Leaguer Dreams. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2014 - Going the Distance: The Cultural Significance of Field of Dreams 25 Years Later. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2013 - From the Inside Looking Out: Analyzing First Person Narrative from the Yankee Dugout. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2013 - From the Inside Looking Out: Analyzing First Person Narrative from the Yankee Dugout. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2012 - Poetic Players: Baseball Poetry from Within the Game. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2012 - From Battlefields to Ball Fields: Creating an American Myth. Midwest Modern Language Association, Cincinnati, Ohio.

2011 - Like They Never Left: Resurrection and Restoration in the Short Fiction of W.P. Kinsella. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2011 - For Love of Country and Game: Baseball and Identity in Bluegrass and Country Music. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2011 - What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been: Experiential Learning in an Interdisciplinary Approach to the Civil War. Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, Missouri.

2011 - And Ever the Twain Shall Tweet: Teaching Mark Twain in the 21st Century. Christian Scholars' Conference, Malibu, California.

2010 - He's One of Us!: The Intertwined Identities of Jeff Shaw and Washington Court House, Ohio. NINE Journal Spring Training Conference on Baseball History and Culture, Tempe, Arizona.

2009 - Heading for Home: Baseball and Father-Son Relationships in Shoeless Joe and Field of Dreams. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2008 - America's Yankee: Bobby Murcer's Life In and Out of Baseball. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2008 - Angels and the Widow: Honoring the Past, Preserving the Future. Tennessee Philological Association, Clarksville, Tennessee.

2007 - Who's on First?: Baseball and Identity in the Novels of W.P. Kinsella. Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, Cooperstown, New York.

2006 - Praise the Name of Baseball: Religion, Baseball, and Colonization. Tennessee Philological Association, Henderson, Tennessee.

2005 - Proving Themselves Men: The 1st South Carolina Colored Volunteers and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Tennessee Philological Association, Nashville, Tennessee.

2004 - Suffering with Faith: A Comparative Examination of Job and Elie Wiesel. Tennessee Philological Association, Columbia, Tennessee.

Various book festivals, podcasts, radio shows, and other media appearances.

Community Involvement

Contact Information

(615) 966-5744
willie.steele@lipscomb.edu