User:PaulJCompton

Identity
My name is Paul James Compton, and I don't want to be President of anything. Ever.

Right, now we have that cleared up...

There is neither name nor title on the door to my office. I don't have the luxury of a door to my office - which means one less thing to bump into when I'm distracted by some wonderful literary discovery combined with the need for more coffee. **update** I now have a door to my office. I bump into it regularly.

Coffee? Did someone say coffee?

Potted biography
Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1973. Grew up (did I ever?) in rural Victoria and coastal Tasmania. Addicted to academic study, I've done tertiary coursework in pretty much all of my passionate interests now, with the exception of Collingwood Football Club and Wimbledon: Without doubt, the greatest passion here is the field I am currently studying. I'm working on my doctorate at the moment, a biography of a long-forgotten Australian politician using the devices of a novel, to be accompanied by a study of the limits to be imposed on such a work so that it can still be considered a biography and not a fictional account. My masters thesis looked at the application of compositional and performance techniques from other fields of art can be analogously deployed in the creation of fiction. But apart from that, I just love quality fiction. And I write neo-formalist poetry (yes, I admit it).
 * Bachelor of Applied Computing at University of Tasmania, with a minor in music
 * Bachelor of Letters (Honours) in Politics at Deakin University, focussing on international politics and philosophy
 * (incomplete) Master of Divinity at Melbourne College of Divinity
 * Master of Arts in Literature & Writing at Deakin University
 * (current) Doctor of Philosophy in Literature & History at Deakin University

I have spent about 22 years of my life to date in Australia, in two stints. Apart from that, I lived in the midlands of England for 7 years, in Berlin for 4 years, in a provincial town not far from Hamburg for about 11 years, and since 2015 I have been living in Hessen, not far from the city of Frankfurt, where a tiny little village is called home. And in case you are wondering how all this adds up... ever heard of dividing one's time? I did it. It sucks.

I wouldn't mind at all returning to Australia to live, but it doesn't seem likely to happen in the near future.

My career has been as widely varied as my studies suggest, including work for the Church of England, a period as a headhunter, running a wine bar, network administration, programming, language teaching, journalism, translating, interpreting and book editing. The last five have made up the vast majority of my work for the last decade and generally keep the wine, cheese and books coming in sufficient quantities, especially since I started working as an associate lecturer at a nearby university.

Private life? Yes please, but it doesn't need to be here.

Interests
I think I've covered them above.